Scattering of cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation in galaxy clusters induces polarization signals determined by the quadrupole anisotropy in the photon distribution at the location of clusters. This `remote quadrupole' derived from the measurements of the induced polarization in galaxy clusters provides an opportunity to reconstruct local CMBtemperatureanisotropies. In this Letter, we develop an algorithm of the reconstruction through the estimation of the underlying primordial gravitational potential, which is the origin of the CMBtemperature and polarization fluctuations and CMB induced polarization in galaxy clusters. We found a nice reconstruction for the quadrupole and octopole components of the CMBtemperatureanisotropies with the assistance of the CMB induced polarization signals. The reconstruction can be an important consistency test on the puzzles of CMB anomalies, especially for the low-quadrupole and axis-of-evil problems reported in Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe and Planck data.

During the transition from a neutral to a fully reionized universe, scattering of cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons via free electrons leads to a new anisotropy contribution to the temperature distribution. If the reionization process is inhomogeneous and patchy, the era of reionization is also visible via brightness temperature fluctuations in the redshifted 21 cm line emission from neutral hydrogen. Since regions containing electrons and neutral hydrogen are expected to trace the same underlying density field, the two are (anti)correlated and this is expected to be reflected in the anisotropy maps via a correlation between arcminute-scale CMBtemperature and the 21 cm background. In terms of the angular cross-power spectrum, unfortunately, this correlation is insignificant due to a geometric cancellation associated with second-order CMBanisotropies. The same cross correlation between ionized and neutral regions, however, can be studied using a bispectrum involving large-scale velocity field of ionized regions from the Doppler effect, arcminute-scale CMBanisotropies during reionization, and the 21 cm background. While the geometric cancellation is partly avoided, the signal-to-noise ratio related to this bispectrum is reduced due to the large cosmic variance related to velocity fluctuations traced by the Doppler effect. Unless the velocity field during reionization can be independently established, it is unlikely that the correlation information related to the relative distribution of ionized electrons and regions containing neutral hydrogen can be obtained with a combined study involving CMB and 21 cm fluctuations

We consider the problem of the interpolation of irregularly spaced spatial data, applied to observation of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies. The well-known interpolation methods and kriging are compared to the binning method which serves as a reference approach. We analyse kriging

One of the main areas of research is the theory of cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies and analysis of CMB data. Using the four year COBE data we were able to improve existing constraints on global shear and vorticity. We found that, in the flat case (which allows for greatest anisotropy), (omega/H)0 less than 10(exp -7), where omega is the vorticity and H is the Hubble constant. This is two orders of magnitude lower than the tightest, previous constraint. We have defined a new set of statistics which quantify the amount of non-Gaussianity in small field cosmic microwave background maps. By looking at the distribution of power around rings in Fourier space, and at the correlations between adjacent rings, one can identify non-Gaussian features which are masked by large scale Gaussian fluctuations. This may be particularly useful for identifying unresolved localized sources and line-like discontinuities. Levin and collaborators devised a method to determine the global geometry of the universe through observations of patterns in the hot and cold spots of the CMB. We have derived properties of the peaks (maxima) of the CMBanisotropies expected in flat and open CDM models. We represent results for angular resolutions ranging from 5 arcmin to 20 arcmin (antenna FWHM), scales that are relevant for the MAP and COBRA/SAMBA space missions and the ground-based interferometer. Results related to galaxy formation and evolution are also discussed.

We present new constraints on cosmic variations of Newton's gravitational constant by making use of the latest CMB data from WMAP, BOOMERANG, CBI and ACBAR experiments and independent constraints coming from big bang nucleosynthesis. We found that current CMB data provide constraints at the ∼10% level, that can be improved to ∼3% by including big bang nucleosynthesis data. We show that future data expected from the Planck satellite could constrain G at the ∼1.5% level while an ultimate, cosmic variance limited, CMB experiment could reach a precision of about 0.4%, competitive with current laboratory measurements.

y-type spectral distortions of the cosmic microwave background allow us to detect clusters and groups of galaxies, filaments of hot gas and the non-uniformities in the warm hot intergalactic medium. Several CMB experiments (on small areas of sky) and theoretical groups (for full sky) have recently published y-type distortion maps. We propose to search for two artificial hot spots in such y-type maps resulting from the incomplete subtraction of the effect of the motion induced dipole on the cosmic microwave background sky. This dipole introduces, at second order, additional temperature and y-distortion anisotropy on the sky of amplitude few μK which could potentially be measured by Planck HFI and Pixie experiments and can be used as a source of cross channel calibration by CMB experiments. This y-type distortion is present in every pixel and is not the result of averaging the whole sky. This distortion, calculated exactly from the known linear dipole, can be subtracted from the final y-type maps, if desired

Primordial statistical anisotropy is a key indicator to investigate early Universe models and has been probed by the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies. In this paper, we examine tensor-mode CMB fluctuations generated from anisotropic gravitational waves, parametrised by P{sub h}(k) = P{sub h}{sup (0)}(k) [ 1 + ∑{sub LM} f{sub L}(k) g{sub LM} Y{sub LM} ( k-circumflex )], where P{sub h}{sup (0)}(k) is the usual scale-invariant power spectrum. Such anisotropic tensor fluctuations may arise from an inflationary model with noncommutativity of fields. It is verified that in this model, an isotropic component and a quadrupole asymmetry with f{sub 0}(k) = f{sub 2}(k) ∝ k{sup -2} are created and hence highly red-tilted off-diagonal components arise in the CMB power spectra, namely ℓ{sub 2} = ℓ{sub 1} ± 2 in TT, TE, EE and BB, and ℓ{sub 2} = ℓ{sub 1} ± 1 in TB and EB. We find that B-mode polarisation is more sensitive to such signals than temperature and E-mode polarisation due to the smallness of large-scale cosmic variance and we can potentially measure g{sub 00} = 30 and g{sub 2M} = 58 at 68% CL in a cosmic-variance-limited experiment. Such a level of signal may be measured in a PRISM like experiment, while the instrumental noise contaminates it in the Planck experiment. These results imply that it is impossible to measure the noncommutative parameter if it is small enough for the perturbative treatment to be valid. Our formalism and methodology for dealing with the CMB tensor statistical anisotropy are general and straightforwardly applicable to other early Universe models.

A large lepton asymmetry in the Universe is still a viable possibility and leads to many interesting phenomena such as gauge symmetry nonrestoration at high temperature. We show that a large lepton asymmetry changes the predicted cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy and that any degeneracy in the relic neutrino sea will be measured to a precision of 1% or better when the CMBanisotropy is measured at the accuracy expected to result from the planned satellite missions MAP and Planck. In fact, the current measurements already put an upper limit on the lepton asymmetry of the Universe which is stronger than the one coming from considerations of primordial nucleosynthesis and structure formation.

Beam asymmetries result in statistically anisotropic cosmic microwave background (CMB) maps. Typically, they are studied for their effects on the CMB power spectrum, however they more closely mimic anisotropic effects such as gravitational lensing and primordial power asymmetry. We discuss tools for studying the effects of beam asymmetry on general quadratic estimators of anisotropy, analytically for full-sky observations as well as in the analysis of realistic data. We demonstrate this methodology in application to a recently detected 9σ quadrupolar modulation effect in the WMAP data, showing that beams provide a complete and sufficient explanation for the anomaly.

Observations of the temperatureanisotropies induced as light from the CMB passes through large scale structures in the late universe are a sensitive probe of the interactions of photons in such environments. In extensions of the Standard Model which give rise to mini-charged particles, photons propagating through transverse magnetic fields can be lost to pair production of such particles. Such a decrement in the photon flux would occur as photons from the CMB traverse the magnetic fields of galaxy clusters. Therefore late time CMBanisotropies can be used to constrain the properties of mini- charged particles. We outline how this test is constructed, and present new constraints on mini-charged particles from observations of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect in the Coma cluster. (orig.)

We obtain the non-linear generalization of the Sachs-Wolfe + integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) formula describing the CMBtemperatureanisotropies. Our formula is valid at all orders in perturbation theory, is also valid in all gauges and includes scalar, vector and tensor modes. A direct consequence of our results is that the maps of the logarithmic temperatureanisotropies are much cleaner than the usual CMB maps, because they automatically remove many secondary anisotropies. This can for instan...

Various data analyses of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) provide observational hints of statistical isotropy breaking. Some of these features can be studied within the framework of primordial vector fields in inflationary theories which generally display some level of statistical anisotropy both in the power spectrum and in higher-order correlation functions. Motivated by these observations and the recent theoretical developments in the study of primordial vector fields, we develop the formalism necessary to extract statistical anisotropy information from the three-point function of the CMBtemperatureanisotropy. We employ a simplified vector field model and parametrize the bispectrum of curvature fluctuations in such a way that all the information about statistical anisotropy is encoded in some parameters λ LM (which measure the anisotropic to the isotropic bispectrum amplitudes). For such a template bispectrum, we compute an optimal estimator for λ LM and the expected signal-to-noise ratio. We estimate that, for f NL ≅ 30, an experiment like Planck can be sensitive to a ratio of the anisotropic to the isotropic amplitudes of the bispectrum as small as 10%. Our results are complementary to the information coming from a power spectrum analysis and particularly relevant for those models where statistical anisotropy turns out to be suppressed in the power spectrum but not negligible in the bispectrum

We forecast how current (PLANCK) and future (PRISM) cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments constrain the adiabatic mode and its admixtures with primordial isocurvature modes. The forecasts are based on measurements of the reconstructed CMB lensing potential and lensing-induced CMB B-mode polarization anisotropies in combination with the CMBtemperature and E-mode polarization anisotropies. We first study the characteristic features of the CMBtemperature, polarization and lensing spectra for adiabatic and isocurvature modes. We then consider how information from the CMB lensing potential and B-mode polarization induced by lensing can improve constraints on an admixture of adiabatic and three correlated isocurvature modes. We find that the CMB lensing spectrum improves constraints on isocurvature modes by at most 10% for the PLANCK and PRISM experiments. The limited improvement is a result of the low amplitude of isocurvature lensing spectra and cancellations between these spectra that render them only slightly detectable. There is a larger gain from using the lensing-induced B-mode polarization spectrum measured by PRISM. In this case constraints on isocurvature mode amplitudes improve by as much as 40% relative to the CMBtemperature and E-mode polarization constraints. The addition of both lensing and lensing-induced B-mode polarization information constrains isocurvature mode amplitudes at the few percent level or better. In the case of admixtures of the adiabatic mode with one or two correlated isocurvature modes we find that constraints at the percent level or better are possible. We investigate the dependence of our results to various assumptions in our analysis, such as the inclusion of dark energy parameters, the CMBtemperature-lensing correlation, and the presence of primordial tensor modes, and find that these assumptions do not significantly change our main results.

Full Text Available We study contribution to the secondary anisotropy maps of cosmic microwave background (CMB radiation which difficult to account for faint sources. Two effects are investigated. They are the Sunyaev–Zeldovich effect connected with the inverse Compton scattering of CMB photons on hot electrons of cluster of galaxies, and contamination of the background by weak extragalctic sources. First, we study fields of the Planck CMB maps around radio sources of the RATAN-600 catalog. We see weak microwave sources which make an additional contribution to the secondary anisotropy on angular small scales (< 7′. An algorithm for selecting candidate objects with the Sunyaev–Zeldovich effect was proposed, based on the use of data on the radio spectral indices and the signal in cosmic-microwave background maps. Second, applying the stacking method, we examine the areas of the CMB maps, constructed according to the Planck Space Observatory data in the neighborhood of different populations of radio sources and giant elliptical galaxies. The samples of objects include giant radio galaxies (GRG, radio sources, selected by the radio spectral index and redshift, as well as the gammaray bursts, used as a secondary comparative sample. The signal from this objects exists on CMB maps and its difference in the neighborhood of GRGs from the other types of objects was discovered.

The CMB is perhaps the cleanest cosmological observable. Its angular spectrum may be both computed and measured to percent accuracy. The current data clearly show a rise in the angular spectrum to a peak of roughly Tl = (l(l + 1)Cl/2)1/2 80 K at l 200, and a fall at higher l. In particular, δTl at l = 400 is significantly less than at l = 200. This is shown through a combined analysis of data sets and by the TOCO data alone. For spatially flat models, a peak in the angular spectrum near l = 200 is indicated, whereas for Ω0 = 0.35 models one expects a peak near l = 400. The data clearly prefer the spatially flat models.

George Smoot shared the 2006 Nobel Prize with John Mathere for the discovery of the fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background. In this talk (which will not be the same as the Nobel lecture), he will discuss what we have learned about the universe in the recent past from these anisotropies.

Full Text Available Searching for the signal of primordial gravitational waves in the B-modes (BB power spectrum is one of the key scientific aims of the cosmic microwave background (CMB polarization experiments. However, this could be easily contaminated by several foreground issues, such as the interstellar dust grains and the galactic cyclotron electrons. In this paper we study another mechanism, the cosmic birefringence, which can be introduced by a CPT-violating interaction between CMB photons and an external scalar field. Such kind of interaction could give rise to the rotation of the linear polarization state of CMB photons, and consequently induce the CMB BB power spectrum, which could mimic the signal of primordial gravitational waves at large scales. With the recently released polarization data of BICEP2 and the joint analysis data of BICEP2/Keck Array and Planck, we perform a global fitting analysis on constraining the tensor-to-scalar ratio r by considering the polarization rotation angle [α(nˆ] which can be separated into a background isotropic part [α¯] and a small anisotropic part [Δα(nˆ]. Since the data of BICEP2 and Keck Array experiments have already been corrected by using the “self-calibration” method, here we mainly focus on the effects from the anisotropies of CMB polarization rotation angle. We find that including Δα(nˆ in the analysis could slightly weaken the constraints on the tensor-to-scalar ratio r, when using current CMB polarization measurements. We also simulate the mock CMB data with the BICEP3-like sensitivity. Very interestingly, we find that if the effects of the anisotropic polarization rotation angle could not be taken into account properly in the analysis, the constraints on r will be dramatically biased. This implies that we need to break the degeneracy between the anisotropies of the CMB polarization rotation angle and the CMB primordial tensor perturbations, in order to measure the signal of primordial

We obtain the non-linear generalization of the Sachs-Wolfe + integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) formula describing the CMBtemperatureanisotropies. Our formula is valid at all orders in perturbation theory, is also valid in all gauges and includes scalar, vector and tensor modes. A direct consequence of our results is that the maps of the logarithmic temperatureanisotropies are much cleaner than the usual CMB maps, because they automatically remove many secondary anisotropies. This can for instance, facilitate the search for primordial non-Gaussianity in future works. It also disentangles the non-linear ISW from other effects. Finally, we provide a method which can iteratively be used to obtain the lensing solution at the desired order.

We obtain the non-linear generalization of the Sachs-Wolfe + integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) formula describing the CMBtemperatureanisotropies. Our formula is valid at all orders in perturbation theory, is also valid in all gauges and includes scalar, vector and tensor modes. A direct consequence of our results is that the maps of the logarithmic temperatureanisotropies are much cleaner than the usual CMB maps, because they automatically remove many secondary anisotropies. This can for instance, facilitate the search for primordial non-Gaussianity in future works. It also disentangles the non-linear ISW from other effects. Finally, we provide a method which can iteratively be used to obtain the lensing solution at the desired order.

We study the Planck CMBtemperature at different scales through its derivatives up to second order, which allows one to characterize the local shape and isotropy of the field. The problem of having an incomplete sky in the calculation and statistical characterization of the derivatives is addressed in the paper. The analysis confirms the existence of a low variance in the CMB at large scales, which is also noticeable in the derivatives. Moreover, deviations from the standard model in the gradient, curvature and the eccentricity tensor are studied in terms of extreme values on the data. As it is expected, the Cold Spot is detected as one of the most prominent peaks in terms of curvature, but additionally, when the information of the temperature and its Laplacian are combined, another feature with similar probability at the scale of 10{sup o} is also observed. However, the p -value of these two deviations increase above the 6% when they are referred to the variance calculated from the theoretical fiducial model, indicating that these deviations can be associated to the low variance anomaly. Finally, an estimator of the directional anisotropy for spinorial quantities is introduced, which is applied to the spinors derived from the field derivatives. An anisotropic direction whose probability is <1% is detected in the eccentricity tensor.

We use wavelet and curvelet transforms to extract signals of cosmic strings from simulated cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperatureanisotropy maps, and to study the limits on the cosmic string tension which various ongoing CMBtemperatureanisotropy experiments will be able to achieve. We construct sky maps with size and angular resolution corresponding to various experiments. These maps contain the signals of a scaling solution of long string segments with a given string tension G μ, the contribution of the dominant Gaussian primordial cosmological fluctuations, and pixel by pixel white noise with an amplitude corresponding to the instrumental noise of the various experiments. In the case that we include white noise, we find that using curvelets we obtain lower bounds on the string tension than with wavelets. For maps with Planck specification, we obtain bounds comparable to what was obtained by the Planck collaboration [1]. Experiments with better angular resolution such as the South Pole Telescope third generation (SPT-3G) survey will be able to yield stronger limits. For maps with a specification of SPT-3G we find that string signals will be visible down to a string tension of G μ = 1.4 × 10 −7 .

We use wavelet and curvelet transforms to extract signals of cosmic strings from simulated cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperatureanisotropy maps, and to study the limits on the cosmic string tension which various ongoing CMBtemperatureanisotropy experiments will be able to achieve. We construct sky maps with size and angular resolution corresponding to various experiments. These maps contain the signals of a scaling solution of long string segments with a given string tension G μ, the contribution of the dominant Gaussian primordial cosmological fluctuations, and pixel by pixel white noise with an amplitude corresponding to the instrumental noise of the various experiments. In the case that we include white noise, we find that using curvelets we obtain lower bounds on the string tension than with wavelets. For maps with Planck specification, we obtain bounds comparable to what was obtained by the Planck collaboration [1]. Experiments with better angular resolution such as the South Pole Telescope third generation (SPT-3G) survey will be able to yield stronger limits. For maps with a specification of SPT-3G we find that string signals will be visible down to a string tension of G μ = 1.4 × 10{sup −7}.

Anisotropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) can be induced during the later stages of cosmic evolution, and in particular during and after the Epoch of Reionisation. Inhomogeneities in the ionised fraction, but also in the baryon density, in the velocity fields and in the gravitational potentials are expected to generate correlated CMB perturbations. We present a complete relativistic treatment of all these effects, up to second order in perturbation theory, that we solve using the numerical Boltzmann code (\\SONG). The physical origin and relevance of all second order terms are carefully discussed. In addition to collisional and gravitational contributions, we identify the diffuse analogue of the blurring and kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effects. Our approach naturally includes the correlations between the imprint from patchy reionisation and the diffuse SZ effects thereby allowing us to derive reliable estimates of the induced temperature and polarisation CMB angular power spectra. In particular, we show that the B -modes generated at intermediate length-scales (ℓ ≅ 100) have the same amplitude as the B -modes coming from primordial gravitational waves with a tensor-to-scalar ratio r =10{sup −4}.

In this study, large-scale effects from asymptotic de Sitter mode on the CMBanisotropy are investigated. Besides the slow variation of the Hubble parameter onset of the last stage of inflation, the recent observational constraints from Planck and WMAP on spectral index confirm that the geometry of the universe can not be pure de Sitter in this era. Motivated by these evidences, we use this mode to calculate the power spectrum of the CMBanisotropy on the large scale. It is found that the CMB spectrum is dependent on the index of Hankel function ν which in the de Sitter limit ν → 3/2, the power spectrum reduces to the scale invariant result. Also, the result shows that the spectrum of anisotropy is dependent on angular scale and slow-roll parameter and these additional corrections are swept away by a cutoff scale parameter H ≪ M ∗ < M P .

The data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) satellite provide detailed full-sky maps of the cosmic microwave background temperatureanisotropy and new full-sky maps of the polarization. Together, the data provide a wealth of cosmological information, including the age of the universe, the epoch when the first stars formed, and the overall composition of baryonic matter, dark matter, and dark energy. The results also provide constraints on the period of inflationary expansion in the very first moments of time. These and other aspects of the mission results will be discussed and commented on. WMAP, part of NASA's Explorers program, was launched on June 30,200 1. The WMAP satellite was produced in a partnership between the Goddard Space Flight Center and Princeton University. The WMAP team also includes researchers at the Johns Hopkins University; the Canadian Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics; University of Texas; University of Chicago; Brown University; University of British Columbia; and University of California, Los Angeles.

Full Text Available Given an arbitrary function, we may construct symmetric and antisymmetric functions under a certain operation. Since statistical isotropy and homogeneity of our Universe has been a fundamental assumption of modern cosmology, we do not expect any particular symmetry or antisymmetry in our Universe. Besides fundamental properties of our Universe, we may also figure our contamination and improve the quality of the CMB data products, by matching the unusual symmetries and antisymmetries of the CMB data with known contaminantions. If we let the operation to be a coordinate inversion, the symmetric and antisymmetric functions have even and odd-parity respectively. The investigation on the parity of the recent CMB data shows a large-scale odd-parity preference, which is very unlikely in the statistical isotropic and homogeneous Universe. We investigated the association of the WMAP systematics with the anomaly, but did not find a definite non-cosmological cause. Besides the parity anomaly, there is anomalous lack of large-scale correlation in CMB data. We show that the odd-parity preference at low multipoles is, in fact, phenomenologically identical with the lack of large-angle correlation.

In the light of the recent Boomerang and Maxima observations of the CMB which show an anomalously low second acoustic peak, we reexamine the prediction by Adams et al (1997) that this would be the consequence of a 'step' in the primordial spectrum induced by a spontaneous symmetry breaking phase transition during primordial inflation. We demonstrate that a deviation from scale-invariance around k ∼ 0.1h Mpc -1 can simultaneously explain both the feature identified earlier in the APM galaxy power spectrum as well the recent CMBanisotropy data, with a baryon density consistent with the BBN value. Such a break also allows a good fit to the data on cluster abundances even for a critical density matter-dominated universe with zero cosmological constant

In the light of the recent Boomerang and Maxima observations of the CMB which show an anomalously low second acoustic peak, we reexamine the prediction by Adams et al (1997) that this would be the consequence of a 'step' in the primordial spectrum induced by a spontaneous symmetry breaking phase transition during primordial inflation. We demonstrate that a deviation from scale-invariance around k {approx} 0.1h Mpc{sup -1} can simultaneously explain both the feature identified earlier in the APM galaxy power spectrum as well the recent CMBanisotropy data, with a baryon density consistent with the BBN value. Such a break also allows a good fit to the data on cluster abundances even for a critical density matter-dominated universe with zero cosmological constant.

Recently, BICEP2 has reported the large tensor-to-scalar ratio r = 0.2{sup +0.07}{sub −0.05} from the observation of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) B-mode at degree-scales. Since tensor modes induce not only CMB B-mode but also the temperature fluctuations on large scales, to realize the consistent temperature fluctuations with the Planck result we should consider suppression of scalar perturbations on corresponding large scales. To realize such a suppression, we consider anti-correlated iso-curvature perturbations which could be realized in the simple curvaton model.

the CMBtemperature signal from the combined signal CMB and the foregrounds has been investigated. As a specific example, we have analysed simulated data, as expected from the ESA Planck CMB mission. A simple multilayer perceptron neural network with 2 hidden layers can provide temperature estimates over...... CMB signal it is essential to minimize the systematic errors in the CMBtemperature determinations. Following the available knowledge of the spectral behavior of the Galactic foregrounds simple power law-like spectra have been assumed. The feasibility of using a simple neural network for extracting...

The inflaton field responsible for inflation may not be a canonical fundamental scalar. It is possible that the inflaton is a composite of fermions or it may have a decay width. In these cases the standard procedure for calculating the power spectrum is not applicable and a new formalism needs to be developed to determine the effect of short range interactions of the inflaton on the power spectrum and the CMBanisotropy. We develop a general formalism for computing the power spectrum of curvature perturbations for such non-canonical cases by using the flat space Källén-Lehmann spectral function in curved quasi-de Sitter space assuming implicitly that the Bunch-Davis boundary conditions enforces the inflaton mode functions to be plane wave in the short wavelength limit and a complete set of mode functions exists in quasi-de Sitter space. It is observed that the inflaton with a decay width suppresses the power at large scale while a composite inflaton's power spectrum oscillates at large scales. These observations may be vindicated in the WMAP data and confirmed by future observations with PLANCK

We present a first internal delensing of CMB maps, both in temperature and polarization, using the public foreground-cleaned (SMICA) Planck 2015 maps. After forming quadratic estimates of the lensing potential, we use the corresponding displacement field to undo the lensing on the same data. We build differences of the delensed spectra to the original data spectra specifically to look for delensing signatures. After taking into account reconstruction noise biases in the delensed spectra, we find an expected sharpening of the power spectrum acoustic peaks with a delensing efficiency of 29 % ( TT ) 25 % ( TE ) and 22 % ( EE ). The detection significance of the delensing effects is very high in all spectra: 12 σ in EE polarization; 18 σ in TE ; and 20 σ in TT . The null hypothesis of no lensing in the maps is rejected at 26 σ. While direct detection of the power in lensing B -modes themselves is not possible at high significance at Planck noise levels, we do detect (at 4.5 σ (under the null hypothesis)) delensing effects in the B -mode map, with 7 % reduction in lensing power. Our results provide a first demonstration of polarization delensing, and generally of internal CMB delensing, and stand in agreement with the baseline ΛCDM Planck 2015 cosmology expectations.

In the present work, we study the largest structures of the CMBtemperature measured by Planck in terms of the most prominent peaks on the sky, which, in particular, are located in the southern galactic hemisphere. Besides these large-scale features, the well-known Cold Spot anomaly is included in the analysis. All these peaks would contribute significantly to some of the CMB large-scale anomalies, as the parity and hemispherical asymmetries, the dipole modulation, the alignment between the quadrupole and the octopole, or in the case of the Cold Spot, to the non-Gaussianity of the field. The analysis of the peaks is performed by using their multipolar profiles, which characterize the local shape of the peaks in terms of the discrete Fourier transform of the azimuthal angle. In order to quantify the local anisotropy of the peaks, the distribution of the phases of the multipolar profiles is studied by using the Rayleigh random walk methodology. Finally, a direct analysis of the 2-dimensional field around the peaks is performed in order to take into account the effect of the galactic mask. The results of the analysis conclude that, once the peak amplitude and its first and second order derivatives at the centre are conditioned, the rest of the field is compatible with the standard model. In particular, it is observed that the Cold Spot anomaly is caused by the large value of curvature at the centre.

A cosmological model, in which the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is a thermal radiation of intergalactic dust instead of a relic radiation of the Big Bang, is revived and revisited. The model suggests that a virtually transparent local Universe becomes considerably opaque at redshifts z > 2 - 3. Such opacity is hardly to be detected in the Type Ia supernova data, but confirmed using quasar data. The opacity steeply increases with redshift because of a high proper density of intergalactic dust in the previous epochs. The temperature of intergalactic dust increases as (1 + z) and exactly compensates the change of wavelengths due to redshift, so that the dust radiation looks apparently like the radiation of the blackbody with a single temperature. The predicted dust temperature is TD = 2.776 K, which differs from the CMBtemperature by 1.9% only, and the predicted ratio between the total CMB and EBL intensities is 13.4 which is close to 12.5 obtained from observations. The CMBtemperature fluctuations are caused by EBL fluctuations produced by galaxy clusters and voids in the Universe. The polarization anomalies of the CMB correlated with temperatureanisotropies are caused by the polarized thermal emission of needle-shaped conducting dust grains aligned by large-scale magnetic fields around clusters and voids. A strong decline of the luminosity density for z > 4 is interpreted as the result of high opacity of the Universe rather than of a decline of the global stellar mass density at high redshifts.

We demonstrate that recent measurements of cosmic microwave background temperature and polarization anisotropy made by the ACBAR, QUAD, and BICEP experiments substantially improve the cosmological constraints on possible variations of the fine structure constant in the early universe. This data, combined with the five year observations from the WMAP mission, yield the constraint α/α 0 =0.987±0.012 at 68% C.L. The inclusion of the new Hubble Space Telescope constraints on the Hubble constant further increases the accuracy to α/α 0 =1.001±0.007 at 68% C.L., bringing possible deviations from the current value below the 1% level and improving previous constraints by a factor of ∼3.

We give an account, at nonexpert and quantitative level, of physics behind the CMBtemperatureanisotropy and polarization and their peculiar features. We discuss, in particular, how cosmological parameters are determined from the CMB measurements and their combinations with other observations. We emphasize that CMB is the major source of information on the primordial density perturbations and, possibly, gravitational waves, and discuss the implication for our understanding of the extremely early Universe.

One of the main obstacles for extracting the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) signal from observations in the mm-submm range is the foreground contamination by emission from Galactic components: mainly synchrotron, free-free and thermal dust emission. Due to the statistical nature of the intrinsic CMB signal it is essential to minimize the systematic errors in the CMBtemperature determinations. Following the available knowledge of the spectral behavior of the Galactic foregrounds simple power law-like spectra have been assumed. The feasibility of using a simple neural network for extracting the CMBtemperature signal from the combined signal CMB and the foregrounds has been investigated. As a specific example, we have analysed simulated data, as expected from the ESA Planck CMB mission. A simple multilayer perceptron neural network with 2 hidden layers can provide temperature estimates over more than 80 per cent of the sky that are to a high degree uncorrelated with the foreground signals. A single network will be able to cover the dynamic range of the Planck noise level over the entire sky.

The CMBtemperature-redshift relation, T{sub CMB}(z)=T{sub 0}(1+z), is a key prediction of the standard cosmology but is violated in many non-standard models. Constraining possible deviations from this law is an effective way to test the ΛCDM paradigm and to search for hints of new physics. We have determined T{sub CMB}(z), with a precision up to 3%, for a subsample (103 clusters) of the Planck SZ cluster catalog, at redshifts in the range 0.01–0.94, using measurements of the spectrum of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect obtained from Planck temperature maps at frequencies from 70 to 353 GHz. The method adopted to provide individual determinations of T{sub CMB}(z) at cluster redshift relies on the use of SZ intensity change, Δ I{sub SZ}(ν) at different frequencies and on a Monte Carlo Markov chain approach. By applying this method to the sample of 103 clusters, we limit possible deviations of the form T{sub CMB}(z)=T{sub 0}(1+z){sup 1−β} to be β= 0.012 ± 0.016, at 1σ uncertainty, consistent with the prediction of the standard model. Combining these measurements with previously published results, we get β=0.013±0.011.

We use the recent observations of Cosmic Microwave Background temperature and polarization anisotropies provided by the Planck satellite experiment to place constraints on the running $\\alpha_\\mathrm{s} = \\mathrm{d}n_{\\mathrm{s}} / \\mathrm{d}\\log k$ and the running of the running $\\beta_{\\mathrm{s}}

The temperature and polarization inhomogeneities of the cosmic microwave background might bear the mark of predecoupling magnetism. The parameters of a putative magnetized background are hereby estimated, for the first time, from the observed temperature autocorrelation as well as from the measured temperature-polarization cross correlation.

The temperature and polarization inhomogeneities of the Cosmic Microwave Background might bear the mark of pre-decoupling magnetism. The parameters of a putative magnetized background are hereby estimated from the observed temperature autocorrelation as well as from the measured temperature-polarization cross-correlation.

The relation between redshift and the CMBtemperature, T{sub CMB}(z) = T{sub 0}(1+z) is a key prediction of standard cosmology, but is violated in many non-standard models. Constraining possible deviations to this law is an effective way to test the ΛCDM paradigm and search for hints of new physics. We present state-of-the-art constraints, using both direct and indirect measurements. In particular, we point out that in models where photons can be created or destroyed, not only does the temperature-redshift relation change, but so does the distance duality relation, and these departures from the standard behaviour are related, providing us with an opportunity to improve constraints. We show that current datasets limit possible deviations of the form T{sub CMB}(z) = T{sub 0}(1+z){sup 1−β} to be β = 0.004±0.016 up to a redshift z ∼ 3. We also discuss how, with the next generation of space and ground-based experiments, these constraints can be improved by more than one order of magnitude.

The relation between redshift and the CMBtemperature, T CMB (z) = T 0 (1+z) is a key prediction of standard cosmology, but is violated in many non-standard models. Constraining possible deviations to this law is an effective way to test the ΛCDM paradigm and search for hints of new physics. We present state-of-the-art constraints, using both direct and indirect measurements. In particular, we point out that in models where photons can be created or destroyed, not only does the temperature-redshift relation change, but so does the distance duality relation, and these departures from the standard behaviour are related, providing us with an opportunity to improve constraints. We show that current datasets limit possible deviations of the form T CMB (z) = T 0 (1+z) 1−β to be β = 0.004±0.016 up to a redshift z ∼ 3. We also discuss how, with the next generation of space and ground-based experiments, these constraints can be improved by more than one order of magnitude

We study reheating in α-attractor models of inflation in which the inflaton couples to other scalars or fermions. We show that the parameter space contains viable regions in which the inflaton couplings to radiation can be determined from the properties of CMBtemperature fluctuations, in particular the spectral index. This may be the only way to measure these fundamental microphysical parameters, which shaped the universe by setting the initial temperature of the hot big bang and contain important information about the embedding of a given model of inflation into a more fundamental theory of physics. The method can be applied to other models of single field inflation.

Magnetic fields present before decoupling are damped due to radiative viscosity. This energy injection affects the thermal and ionization history of the cosmic plasma. The implications for the CMBanisotropies and polarization are investigated for different parameter choices of a nonhelical stochastic magnetic field. Assuming a Gaussian smoothing scale determined by the magnetic damping wave number at recombination, it is found that magnetic fields with present-day strength less than 0.1 nG and negative magnetic spectral indices have a sizable effect on the CMBtemperatureanisotropies and polarization.

Anisotropies in the CMB maps continue to revolutionize our understanding of the Cosmos. However, the statistical interpretation of these anisotropies is tainted with a posteriori statistics. The problem is particularly emphasized for lower order multipoles, i.e. in the cosmic variance regime of the power spectrum. Naturally, the solution lies in acquiring a new data set – a rather difficult task given the sample size of the Universe.The CMBtemperature, in theory, depends on: the direction of photon propagation, the time at which the photons are observed, and the observer’s location in space. In existing CMB data, only the first parameter varies. However, as first pointed out by Kamionkowski and Loeb, a solution lies in making the so-called “Remote Quadrupole Measurements” by analyzing the secondary polarization produced by incoming CMB photons via the Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (SZ) effect. These observations allow us to measure the projected CMB quadrupole at the location and look-back time of a galaxy cluster.At low redshifts, the remote quadrupole is strongly correlated to the CMBanisotropy from our last scattering surface. We provide here a formalism for computing the covariance and relation matrices for both the two-point correlation function on the last scattering surface of a galaxy cluster and the cross correlation of the remote quadrupole with the local CMB. We then calculate these matrices based on a fiducial model and a non-standard model that suppresses power at large angles for ~104 clusters up to z=2. We anticipate to make a priori predictions of the differences between our expectations for the standard and non-standard models. Such an analysis is timely in the wake of the CMB S4 era which will provide us with an extensive SZ cluster catalogue.

We test the statistical isotropy and Gaussianity of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies using observations made by the Planck satellite. Our results are based mainly on the full Planck mission for temperature, but also include some polarization measurements. In particular, we consider the CMBanisotropy maps derived from the multi-frequency Planck data by several component-separation methods. For the temperatureanisotropies, we find excellent agreement between results based on these sky maps over both a very large fraction of the sky and a broad range of angular scales, establishing that potential foreground residuals do not affect our studies. Tests of skewness, kurtosis, multi-normality, N-point functions, and Minkowski functionals indicate consistency with Gaussianity, while a power deficit at large angular scales is manifested in several ways, for example low map variance. The results of a peak statistics analysis are consistent with the expectations of a Gaussian random field. The "Cold S...

Measurements of parallel and perpendicular ion temperatures in the Large Experiment on Instabilities and Anisotropies (LEIA) space simulation chamber display an inverse correlation between the upper bound on the ion temperatureanisotropy and the parallel ion beta (β=8πnkT/B 2 ). Fluctuation measurements indicate the presence of low frequency, transverse, electromagnetic waves with wave numbers and frequencies that are consistent with predictions for Alfven Ion Cyclotron instabilities. These observations are also consistent with in situ spacecraft measurements in the Earth's magnetosheath and with a theoretical/computational model that predicts that such an upper bound on the ion temperatureanisotropy is imposed by scattering from enhanced fluctuations due to growth of the Alfven ion cyclotron instability. (c) 2000 American Institute of Physics

Turbulence in the weakly collisional intracluster medium of galaxies (ICM) is able to generate strong thermal velocity anisotropies in the ions (with respect to the local magnetic field direction), if the magnetic moment of the particles is conserved in the absence of Coulomb collisions. In this scenario, the anisotropic pressure magnetohydrodynamic (AMHD) turbulence shows a very different statistical behaviour from the standard MHD one and is unable to amplify seed magnetic fields, in disagreement with previous cosmological MHD simulations which are successful to explain the observed magnetic fields in the ICM. On the other hand, temperatureanisotropies can also drive plasma instabilities which can relax the anisotropy. This work aims to compare the relaxation rate with the growth rate of the anisotropies driven by the turbulence. We employ quasilinear theory to estimate the ions scattering rate due to the parallel firehose, mirror, and ion-cyclotron instabilities, for a set of plasma parameters resulting from AMHD simulations of the turbulent ICM. We show that the ICM turbulence can sustain only anisotropy levels very close to the instabilities thresholds. We argue that the AMHD model which bounds the anisotropies at the marginal stability levels can describe the Alfvenic turbulence cascade in the ICM.

Among the kinetic microinstabilities, the firehose instability is one of the most efficient mechanisms to restrict the unlimited increase of temperatureanisotropy in the direction of an ambient magnetic field as predicted by adiabatic expansion of collision-poor solar wind. Indeed, the solar wind proton temperatureanisotropy detected near 1 AU shows that it is constrained by the marginal firehose condition. Of the two types of firehose instabilities, namely, parallel and oblique, the literature suggests that the solar wind data conform more closely to the marginal oblique firehose condition. In the present work, however, it is shown that the parallel firehose instability threshold is markedly influenced by the presence of anisotropic electrons, such that under some circumstances, the cumulative effects of both electron and proton anisotropies could describe the observation without considering the oblique firehose mode.

In this paper we compute the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect due to the presence of dark-matter structures on cosmological scale. We cross-correlate the CMBtemperature fluctuations with the extragalactic high-energy γ-ray flux map obtained with FERMI-LAT. We find a null signal consistent with the theory and conclude that the presence of halos and subhalos at galactic and extragalactic scale, if not excluded, will be hardly discoverable.

Full Text Available Results are presented from a novel EISCAT special programme, SP-UK-BEAN, intended for the direct measurement of the ion temperatureanisotropy during ion frictional heating events in the high-latitude F-region. The experiment employs a geometry which provides three simultaneous estimates of the ion temperature in a single F-region observing volume at a range of aspect angles from 0° to 36°. In contrast to most previous EISCAT experiments to study ion temperatureanisotropies, field-aligned observations are made using the Sodankylä radar, while the Kiruna radar measures at an aspect angle of the order of 30°. Anisotropic effects can thus be studied within a small common volume whose size and altitude range is limited by the radar beamwidth, rather than in volumes which overlap but cover different altitudes. The derivation of line-of-sight ion temperature is made more complex by the presence of an unknown percentage of atomic and molecular ions at the observing altitude and the possibility of non-Maxwellian distortion of the ion thermal velocity distribution. The first problem has been partly accounted for by insisting that a constant value of electron temperature be maintained. This enables an estimate of the ion composition to be made, and facilitates the derivation of more realistic line-of-sight ion temperatures and temperatureanisotropies. The latter problem has been addressed by assuming that the thermal velocity distribution remains bi-Maxwellian. The limitations of these approaches are discussed. The ion temperatureanisotropies and temperature partition coefficients during two ion heating events give values intermediate between those expected for atomic and for molecular species. This result is consistent with an analysis which indicates that significant proportions of molecular ions (up to 50% were present at the times of greatest heating.

Both WMAP and Planck data show a significant odd-multipole preference in the large scales of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperatureanisotropies. If this pattern originates from cosmological effects, then it can be considered a crucial clue for a violation in the cosmological principle. By defining various direction dependent statistics in the full-sky Planck 2015 maps (see, for instance, Naselsky et al. (2012); W. Zhao (2014)), we found that the CMB parity asymmetry has a preferred direction, which is independent of the choices of the statistics. In particular, this preferred axis is strongly aligned with those in the CMB quadrupole and octopole, as well as that in the CMB kinematic dipole, which hints to their non-cosmological origin. In realistic observations, the foreground residuals are inevitable, and should be properly masked out in order to avoid possible misinterpretation of the results. In this paper, we extend our previous analyses to the masked Planck 2015 data. By defining a similar direction dependent statistic in the masked map, we find a preferred direction of the CMB parity asymmetry, in which the axis also coincides with that found in the full-sky analysis. Therefore, our conclusions on the CMB parity violation and its directional properties are confirmed.

Both WMAP and Planck data show a significant odd-multipole preference in the large scales of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperatureanisotropies. If this pattern originates from cosmological effects, then it can be considered a crucial clue for a violation in the cosmological principle. By defining various direction dependent statistics in the full-sky Planck 2015 maps (see, for instance, Naselsky et al. (2012); W. Zhao (2014)), we found that the CMB parity asymmetry has a preferred direction, which is independent of the choices of the statistics. In particular, this preferred axis is strongly aligned with those in the CMB quadrupole and octopole, as well as that in the CMB kinematic dipole, which hints to their non-cosmological origin. In realistic observations, the foreground residuals are inevitable, and should be properly masked out in order to avoid possible misinterpretation of the results. In this paper, we extend our previous analyses to the masked Planck 2015 data. By defining a similar direction dependent statistic in the masked map, we find a preferred direction of the CMB parity asymmetry, in which the axis also coincides with that found in the full-sky analysis. Therefore, our conclusions on the CMB parity violation and its directional properties are confirmed.

The present paper comprises a review of kinetic instabilities that may be operative in the solar wind, and how they influence the dynamics thereof. The review is limited to collective plasma instabilities driven by the temperatureanisotropies. To limit the scope even further, the discussion is restricted to the temperatureanisotropy-driven instabilities within the model of bi-Maxwellian plasma velocity distribution function. The effects of multiple particle species or the influence of field-aligned drift will not be included. The field-aligned drift or beam is particularly prominent for the solar wind electrons, and thus ignoring its effect leaves out a vast portion of important physics. Nevertheless, for the sake of limiting the scope, this effect will not be discussed. The exposition is within the context of linear and quasilinear Vlasov kinetic theories. The discussion does not cover either computer simulations or data analyses of observations, in any systematic manner, although references will be made to published works pertaining to these methods. The scientific rationale for the present analysis is that the anisotropic temperatures associated with charged particles are pervasively detected in the solar wind, and it is one of the key contemporary scientific research topics to correctly characterize how such anisotropies are generated, maintained, and regulated in the solar wind. The present article aims to provide an up-to-date theoretical development on this research topic, largely based on the author's own work.

We test the statistical isotropy and Gaussianity of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies using observations made by the Planck satellite. Our results are based mainly on the full Planck mission for temperature, but also include some polarization measurements. In particular, we consi...

Our velocity relative to the rest frame of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) generates a dipole temperatureanisotropy on the sky whichhas been well measured for more than 30 years, and has an accepted amplitude of v/c = 1.23 x 10-3, or v = 369 km-1. In addition to thissignal generated by Dop...

Upcoming cosmic microwave background (CMB) surveys will soon make the first detection of the polarized Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, the linear polarization generated by the scattering of CMB photons on the free electrons present in collapsed objects. Measurement of this polarization along with knowledge of the electron density of the objects allows a determination of the quadrupolar temperatureanisotropy of the CMB as viewed from the space-time location of the objects. Maps of these remote temperature quadrupoles have several cosmological applications. Here we propose a new application: the reconstruction of the cosmological reionization history. We show that with quadrupole measurements out to redshift 3, constraints on the mean optical depth can be improved by an order of magnitude beyond the CMB cosmic variance limit.

The laser interaction with an underdense plasma leads to an anisotropic laser heating of electrons. This temperatureanisotropy gradient in turn is the source of an early magnetic field, which has an important effect on the plasma evolution, due to the thermal flux reduction. We describe the temperatureanisotropy by an evolution equation including the anisotropy-magnetic field coupling and observe a rather efficient magnetic field generation. However at high anisotropy levels, a small-scale instability emerges, leading to a serious problem in numerical calculations. We introduce the kinetics effects, which fix the problem by the anisotropy diffusion through the heat flux tensor. A constant-coefficient Fokker-Planck model in the 2-dimensional geometry allows us to derive an anisotropy diffusion term. The diffusion coefficient is fitted from the kinetic theory of the collisional anisotropic (Weibel) instability growth rate. Such an anisotropy diffusion term wipes out the unphysical instability without any undesirable smoothing. This diffusion along with the viscosity term leads also to a quite good restitution of the Weibel instability growth rate and to the short wavelength cutoff, even in a weakly collisional situation. This allows us to use such a model to predict the emergence of the Weibel instability as well as its saturation. (authors)

The magnetic anisotropy is decreased with increasing temperature in normal magnetic materials, which is harmful to the thermal stability of magnetic devices. Here, we report the realization of positive temperature coefficient of magnetic anisotropy in a novel composite combining β-phase polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) with magnetostrictive materials (magnetostrictive film/PVDF bilayer structure). We ascribe the enhanced magnetic anisotropy of the magnetic film at elevated temperature to the st...

We present measurements of the $E$-mode polarization angular auto-power spectrum ($EE$) and temperature-$E$-mode cross-power spectrum ($TE$) of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) using 150 GHz data from three seasons of SPTpol observations. We now report the $EE$ and $TE$ power spectra over the spherical harmonic multipole range $50 < \\ell \\leq 8000$, and detect the first nine acoustic peaks in the $EE$ spectrum with high signal-to-noise. These measurements are the most sensitive to date of the $EE$ and $TE$ angular polarization power spectra at $\\ell > 1050$ and $\\ell > 1475$, respectively. The observations cover $500\\, \\rm{deg}^2$ of sky, a fivefold increase in area compared to previous SPTpol power spectrum releases, leading to more than a factor of two reduction in bandpower uncertainties. The additional sky coverage increases our sensitivity to the photon-diffusion damping tail of the CMB angular power spectra, which enables tighter constraints on $\\Lambda CDM$ model extensions such as primordial helium content $Y_\\rm{p}$ and effective number of relativistic species $N_\\rm{eff}$. Furthermore, after masking all sources with unpolarized flux $>50$ mJy we place a 95% confidence upper limit on residual polarized point-source power of $D_\\ell < 0.10 \\mu{\\rm K}^2$ at $\\ell=3000$. This limit is a factor of four lower than the previous best upper limit, and suggests that the $EE$ damping tail is brighter than foregrounds to at least $\\ell = 4100$ with modest source masking. Finally, we find cosmological parameter constraints consistent with those for $Planck$ temperature when fitting SPTpol data at $\\ell < 1000$. However, including SPTpol data at $\\ell > 1000$ results in a preference for a higher value of the expansion rate ($H_0 = 71.2 \\pm 2.1\\,\\mbox{km}\\,s^{-1}\\mbox{Mpc}^{-1}$) and a lower value for present-day density fluctuations ($\\sigma_8 = 0.77 \\pm 0.02$). (Abridged).

We present measurements of the E-mode polarization angular auto-power spectrum (EE) and temperature-E-mode cross-power spectrum (TE) of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) using 150 GHz data from three seasons of SPTpol observations. We report the power spectra over the spherical harmonic multipole range 50 < l <= 8000 and detect nine acoustic peaks in the EE spectrum with high signal-to-noise ratio. These measurements are the most sensitive to date of the EE and TE power spectra at l > 1050 and l > 1475, respectively. The observations cover 500 deg(2), a fivefold increase in area compared to previous SPTpol analyses, which increases our sensitivity to the photon diffusion damping tail of the CMB power spectra enabling tighter constraints on Lambda CDM model extensions. After masking all sources with unpolarized flux > 50 mJy, we place a 95% confidence upper limit on residual polarized point-source power of D-l= l(l + 1)C-l/2 pi < 0.107 mu K-2 at l = 3000, suggesting that the EE damping tail dominates foregrounds to at least l = 4050 with modest source masking. We find that the SPTpol data set is in mild tension with the Lambda CDM model (2.1 sigma), and different data splits prefer parameter values that differ at the similar to 1 sigma level. When fitting SPTpol data at l < 1000, we find cosmological parameter constraints consistent with those for Planck temperature. Including SPTpol data at l > 1000 results in a preference for a higher value of the expansion rate (H-0 = 71.3 +/- 2.1 km s(-1) Mpc(-1)) and a lower value for present-day density fluctuations (sigma(8) = 0.77 +/- 0.02).

We compute maps of CMBtemperature fluctuations seeded by cosmic strings using high resolution simulations of cosmic strings in a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe. We create full-sky, 18 deg. and 3 deg. CMB maps, including the relevant string contribution at each resolution from before recombination to today. We extract the angular power spectrum from these maps, demonstrating the importance of recombination effects. We briefly discuss the probability density function of the pixel temperatures, their skewness, and kurtosis.

We propose a method to study and constrain modified gravity theories for dark matter using CMBtemperatureanisotropies and polarization. We assume that the theories considered here have already passed the matter power-spectrum test of large-scale structure. With this requirement met, we show that a modified gravity theory can be specified by parametrizing the time evolution of its dark-matter density contrast, which is completely controlled by the dark-matter stress history. We calculate how the stress history with a given parametrization affects the CMB observables, and a qualitative discussion of the physical effects involved is supplemented with numerical examples. It is found that, in general, alternative gravity theories can be efficiently constrained by the CMBtemperature and polarization spectra. There exist, however, special cases where modified gravity cannot be distinguished from the CDM model even by using both CMB and matter power spectrum observations, nor can they be efficiently restricted by other observables in perturbed cosmologies. Our results show how the stress properties of dark matter, which determine the evolutions of both density perturbations and the gravitational potential, can be effectively investigated using just the general conservation equations and without assuming any specific theoretical gravitational theory within a wide class.

The temperature dependence of magnetic anisotropy of ultrathin Fe film with different thickness epitaxially grown on vicinal Si(111) substrate has been quantitatively investigated using the anisotropic magnetoresistance(AMR) measurements. Due to the effect of the vicinal substrate, the magnetic anisotropy is the superposition of a four-fold, a two-fold and a weakly six-fold contribution. It is found that the temperature dependence of the first-order magnetocrystalline anisotropies coefficient follows power laws of the reduced magnetization m(T)(=M(T)/M(0)) being consistent with the Callen and Callen's theory. However the temperature dependence of uniaxial magnetic anisotropy (UMA) shows novel behavior that decreases roughly as a function of temperature with different power law for samples with different thickness. We also found that the six-fold magnetocrystalline anisotropy is almost invariable over a wide temperature range. Possible mechanisms leading to the different exponents are discussed.

Full Text Available The interfacial perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in W/CoFeB (1.2 ∼ 3 nm/MgO thin film structures is strongly dependent on temperature, and is significantly reduced at high temperature. The interfacial magnetic anisotropy is generally proportional to the third power of magnetization, but an additional factor due to thermal expansion is required to explain the temperature dependence of the magnetic anisotropy of ultrathin CoFeB films. The reduction of the magnetic anisotropy is more prominent for the thinner films; as the temperature increases from 300 K to 400 K, the anisotropy is reduced ∼50% for the 1.2-nm-thick CoFeB, whereas the anisotropy is reduced ∼30% for the 1.7-nm-thick CoFeB. Such a substantial reduction of magnetic anisotropy at high temperature is problematic for data retention when incorporating W/CoFeB/MgO thin film structures into magneto-resistive random access memory devices. Alternative magnetic materials and structures are required to maintain large magnetic anisotropy at elevated temperatures.

Exchange anisotropy was studied by SQUID magnetometry on an array of monodisperse colloidal nanoparticles consisting of a 7-8 nm diameter FCC Co core covered with a 2-2.5 nm thick FCC CoO shell. Temperature-dependent measurements of the exchange bias field show that the exchange anisotropy vanishes when a magnetic field was applied during cooling below 150 K. The suppression of exchange anisotropy is due to uncompensated interfacial antiferromagnetic spins

We study the CMB lensing signature of a pre-inationary particle (PIP), assuming it is responsible for the giant rings anomaly that was found recently in the WMAP data. Simulating Planck-like data we find that generically the CMB lensing signal to noise ratio associated with such a PIP is quite small and it would be difficult to cross correlate the temperature giant rings with the CMB lensing signal. However, if the pre-inationary particle is also responsible for the bulk flow measured from the local large scale structure, which happens to point roughly at the same direction as the giant rings, then the CMB lensing signal to noise ratio is fairly significant.

We extend our recent work on the effects of a time-varying fine-structure constant α in the cosmic microwave background by providing a thorough analysis of the degeneracies between α and the other cosmological parameters, and discussing ways to break these with both existing and/or forthcoming data. In particular, we present the state-of-the-art cosmic microwave background constraints on α through a combined analysis of the BOOMERanG, MAXIMA and DASI data sets. We also present a novel discussion of the constraints on α coming from large-scale structure observations, focusing in particular on the power spectrum from the 2dF survey. Our results are consistent with no variation in α from the epoch of recombination to the present day, and restrict any such variation to be less than about 4%. We show that the forthcoming Microwave Anisotropy Probe and Planck experiments will be able to break most of the currently existing degeneracies between α and other parameters, and measure α to better than percent accuracy

We perform a wavelet analysis of the temperature and polarization maps of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) delivered by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe experiment in search for a parity-violating signal. Such a signal could be seeded by new physics beyond the standard model, for which the Lorentz and CPT symmetries may not hold. Under these circumstances, the linear polarization direction of a CMB photon may get rotated during its cosmological journey, a phenomenon also called cosmological birefringence. Recently, Feng et al. have analyzed a subset of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe and BOOMERanG 2003 angular power spectra of the CMB, deriving a constraint that mildly favors a nonzero rotation. By using wavelet transforms we set a tighter limit on the CMB photon rotation angle Δα=-2.5±3.0 (Δα=-2.5±6.0) at the one (two) σ level, consistent with a null detection

A combined experimental and numerical study of the effect of temperature on anisotropy in warm forming of AA 6016-T4 aluminum was performed. The anisotropy coefficients of the Vegter yield function were calculated from crystal plasticity models with an adequate combination of extra slip systems.

The temperatureanisotropy generated by cyclotron resonance heating of tokamak plasmas is calculated and the poloidal equilibrium electric field due to the anisotropy is studied. For the calculation of anisotropic temperatures, bounce-averaged Fokker-Planck equation with a bi-Maxwellian distribution function of heated particles is solved, assuming a moderate wave power and a constant quasilinear cyclotron resonance diffusion coefficient. The poloidal electrostatic potential variation is found to be proportional to the particle density and the degree of temperatureanisotropy of warm species created by cyclotron resonance heating

Full Text Available The Far-Infrared Absolute Spectrophotometer (FIRAS on the COBE satellite, gives different temperatures of the Cosmic Microwave Background. This deviation has a theoretical explanation in the Doppler effect on the dipole (weak component of the radiation, the true microwave background of the Universe that moves at 365 km/sec, if the monopole (strong component of the radiation is due to the Earth. Owing to the Doppler effect, the dipole radiation temperature (determined by the 1st derivative of the monopole is lower than the monopole radiation temperature, with a value equal to the observed deviation. By this theory, the WMAP and PLANCK satellites, targeting the L2 point in the Sun-Earth-Moon system, should be insensitive to the monopole radiation. In contrast to the launched WMAP satellite, the PLANCK satellite will have on board absolute instruments which will not be able to detect the measured temperature of the Cosmic Microwave Background. That the monopole (strong component of the observed Cosmic Microwave Background is generated by the Earth is given a complete theoretical proof herein.

In order to improve the comportment modelling of PWR fuel pin, and more precisely their canning tubes, Framatome and the CEA have undertake an important study program of Zircaloy-4 mechanical properties. It includes in particular the study of the plasticity between 20 and 400 degree Celsius. This material being not isotropic because of the zirconium hexagonal crystal network and the texture presented by the canning tubes, its plastic anisotropy has been measured. The obtained results for the canning in *slack* and recrystallized before irradiation Zircaloy-4 are presented and the deformation systems able to explain the observed anisotropy is researched. (O.L.). 6 refs., 4 figs., 1 tab

In the present work, we have studied the effect of temperature and carrier density on anisotropy in supercurrent density in bilayer cuprate superconductors. Here, we have considered a tight binding bilayered Hubbard Hamiltonian containing intra and interlayer attractive interactions. The situation considered here is similar to a SIS junction. We have got the expressions for the superconducting order parameters, carrier density and anisotropy in superconducting density (I ab /I c ) for such SIS junction. The numerical analysis show that the anisotropy in the supercurrent density depends on temperature and carrier density in layered high T c cuprates. (author)

We are developing high-sensitivity millimeter-wave detector arrays for measuring the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). This development is directed to advance the technology readiness of the Inflation Probe mission in NASA's Physics of the Cosmos program. The Inflation Probe is a fourth-generation CMB satellite that will measure the polarization of the CMB to astrophysical limits, characterizing the inflationary polarization signal, mapping large-scale structure based on polarization induced by gravitational lensing, and mapping Galactic magnetic fields through measurements of polarized dust emission. The inflationary polarization signal is produced by a background of gravitational waves from the epoch of inflation, an exponential expansion of space-time in the early universe, with an amplitude that depends on the physical mechanism producing inflation. The inflationary polarization signal may be distinguished by its unique 'B-mode' vector properties from polarization from the density variations that predominantly source CMBtemperatureanisotropy. Mission concepts for the Inflation Probe are being developed in the US, Europe and Japan. The arrays are based on planar antennas that provide integral beam collimation, polarization analysis, and spectral band definition in a compact lithographed format that eliminates discrete fore-optics such as lenses and feedhorns. The antennas are coupled to transition-edge superconducting bolometers, read out with multiplexed SQUID current amplifiers. The superconducting sensors and readouts developed in this program share common technologies with NASA X-ray and FIR detector applications. Our program targets developments required for space observations, and we discuss our technical progress over the past two years and plans for future development. We are incorporating arrays into active sub-orbital and ground-based experiments, which advance technology readiness while producing state of the art CMB

Full Text Available Contemporary projects to measure anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB are now detecting hundreds to thousands of extragalactic radio sources, most of them blazars. As a member of a group of CMB scientists involved in the construction of catalogues of such sources and their analysis, I wish to point out the potential value of CMB surveys to studies of AGN jets and their polarization. Current CMB projects, for instance, reach mJy sensitivity, offer wide sky coverage, are “blind” and generally of uniform sensitivity across the sky (hence useful statistically, make essentially simultaneous multi-frequency observations at frequencies from 30 to 857 GHz, routinely offer repeated observations of sources with interesting cadences and now generally provide polarization measurements. The aim here is not to analyze in any depth the AGN science already derived from such projects, but rather to heighten awareness of their promise for the AGN community.

Correlations between cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature, polarization and spectral distortion anisotropies can be used as a probe of primordial non-Gaussianity. Here, we perform a reconstruction of μ-distortion anisotropies in the presence of Galactic and extragalactic foregrounds, applying the so-called Constrained ILC component separation method to simulations of proposed CMB space missions (PIXIE, LiteBIRD, CORE, PICO). Our sky simulations include Galactic dust, Galactic synchrotron, Galactic free-free, thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect, as well as primary CMBtemperature and μ-distortion anisotropies, the latter being added as correlated field. The Constrained ILC method allows us to null the CMBtemperatureanisotropies in the reconstructed μ-map (and vice versa), in addition to mitigating the contaminations from astrophysical foregrounds and instrumental noise. We compute the cross-power spectrum between the reconstructed (CMB-free) μ-distortion map and the (μ-free) CMBtemperature map, after foreground removal and component separation. Since the cross-power spectrum is proportional to the primordial non-Gaussianity parameter, fNL, on scales k˜eq 740 Mpc^{-1}, this allows us to derive fNL-detection limits for the aforementioned future CMB experiments. Our analysis shows that foregrounds degrade the theoretical detection limits (based mostly on instrumental noise) by more than one order of magnitude, with PICO standing the best chance at placing upper limits on scale-dependent non-Gaussianity. We also discuss the dependence of the constraints on the channel sensitivities and chosen bands. Like for B-mode polarization measurements, extended coverage at frequencies ν ≲ 40 GHz and ν ≳ 400 GHz provides more leverage than increased channel sensitivity.

Ni/NiO multilayers were grown by magnetron sputtering at room temperature, with the aid of the natural oxidation procedure. That is, at the end of the deposition of each single Ni layer, air is let to flow into the vacuum chamber through a leak valve. Then, a very thin NiO layer ({approx}1.2 nm) is formed. Simulated x-ray reflectivity patterns reveal that layering is excellent for individual Ni-layer thickness larger than 2.5 nm, which is attributed to the intercalation of amorphous NiO between the polycrystalline Ni layers. The magnetization of the films, measured at temperatures 5-300 K, has almost bulk-like value, whereas the films exhibit a trend to perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) with an unusual significant positive interface anisotropy contribution, which presents a weak temperature dependence. The power-law behavior of the multilayers indicates a non-negligible contribution of higher order anisotropies in the uniaxial anisotropy. Bloch-law fittings for the temperature dependence of the magnetization in the spin-wave regime show that the magnetization in the multilayers decreases faster as a function of temperature than the one of bulk Ni. Finally, when the individual Ni-layer thickness decreases below 2 nm, the multilayer stacking vanishes, resulting in a dramatic decrease of the interface magnetic anisotropy and consequently in a decrease of the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy.

This paper makes two points. First, we show that the line-of-sight solution to cosmic microwave anisotropies in Fourier space, even though formally defined for arbitrarily large wavelengths, leads to position-space solutions which only depend on the sources of anisotropies inside the past light cone of the observer. This foretold manifestation of causality in position (real) space happens order by order in a series expansion in powers of the visibility γ=e -μ , where μ is the optical depth to Thomson scattering. We show that the contributions of order γ N to the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies are regulated by spacetime window functions which have support only inside the past light cone of the point of observation. Second, we show that the Fourier-Bessel expansion of the physical fields (including the temperature and polarization momenta) is an alternative to the usual Fourier basis as a framework to compute the anisotropies. The viability of the Fourier-Bessel series for treating the CMB is a consequence of the fact that the visibility function becomes exponentially small at redshifts z>>10 3 , effectively cutting off the past light cone and introducing a finite radius inside which initial conditions can affect physical observables measured at our position x-vector=0 and time t 0 . Hence, for each multipole l there is a discrete tower of momenta k il (not a continuum) which can affect physical observables, with the smallest momenta being k 1l ∼l. The Fourier-Bessel modes take into account precisely the information from the sources of anisotropies that propagates from the initial value surface to the point of observation - no more, no less. We also show that the physical observables (the temperature and polarization maps), and hence the angular power spectra, are unaffected by that choice of basis. This implies that the Fourier-Bessel expansion is the optimal scheme with which one can compute CMBanisotropies.

The strong crystallographic texture which is developed during the fabrication of zirconium-based alloys causes pronounced anisotropy in their mechanical properties, particularly deformation. The tendency for circular-section tension specimens with a high concentration of basal poles in one direction to become elliptical when deformed in tension has been used in this study to provide quantitative data on the effects of both strain and temperature on strain anisotropy. Tension tests were carried out over a temperature range of 293 to 1193 K on specimens machined from Zircaloy-2 plate. The strain anisotropy was found to increase markedly at temperatures over 923 K, reaching a maximum in the region of 1070 K. The strain anisotropy increased with increasing strain in this temperature region. The study was extended to Zircaloy-4 pressurized-water reactor fuel cladding by carrying out tube swelling tests and evaluating the axial deformation produced. Although scatter in the test results was higher than that exhibited in the tension tests, the general trend in the data was similar. The effects of the strain anisotropy observed are discussed in relation to the effects of temperature on the ductility of Zircaloy fuel cladding tubes during postulated largebreak loss-of-coolant accidents

Strain anisotropy was investigated at temperatures in the range 293 to 1117K in circular tensile specimens prepared from rolled Zircaloy-2 plate so that their tensile axes were parallel to and transverse to the rolling direction. The strain anisotropy factor for both types of specimen increased markedly in the high alpha phase region above 923K reaching a maximum at circa 1070K. Above this temperature in the alpha-plus-beta phase region the strain anisotropy decreased rapidly as the proportion of beta phase increased and was almost non-existent at 1173K. The strain anisotropy was markedly strain dependent, particularly in the high alpha phase region. The study was extended to Zircaloy-4 pressurized water reactor (PWR) 17 x 17 type fuel rod tubing specimens which were strained under biaxial conditions using cooling conditions which promoted uniform diametral strain over most of their lengths (circa 250 mm). In these circumstances the strain anisotropy is manifest by a reduction in length. Measurement of this change along with that in diameter and wall thickness produced data from which the strain anisotropy factor was calculated. The results, although influenced by additional factors discussed in the paper, were similar to those observed in the uniaxial Zircaloy-2 tensile tests. (author)

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperatureanisotropies exhibit a large-scale dipolar power asymmetry. To determine whether this is due to a real, physical modulation or is simply a large statistical fluctuation requires the measurement of new modes. Here we forecast how well CMB polarization data from Planck and future experiments will be able to confirm or constrain physical models for modulation. Fitting several such models to the Planck temperature data allows us to provide predictions for polarization asymmetry. While for some models and parameters Planck polarization will decrease error bars on the modulation amplitude by only a small percentage, we show, importantly, that cosmic-variance-limited (and in some cases even Planck) polarization data can decrease the errors by considerably better than the expectation of √{2 } based on simple ℓ-space arguments. We project that if the primordial fluctuations are truly modulated (with parameters as indicated by Planck temperature data) then Planck will be able to make a 2 σ detection of the modulation model with 20%-75% probability, increasing to 45%-99% when cosmic-variance-limited polarization is considered. We stress that these results are quite model dependent. Cosmic variance in temperature is important: combining statistically isotropic polarization with temperature data will spuriously increase the significance of the temperature signal with 30% probability for Planck.

We report the first study of the correlation between elevated solar wind core plasma temperatures and temperatureanisotropy in the terrestrial foreshock. Plasma temperature is enhanced near the fire hose marginal stability threshold in the presence of ultra low frequency (ULF) large amplitude magnetic perturbations, which are intrinsically right-hand circularly polarized. Direct comparison of contemporaneous anisotropic temperatures in the upstream solar wind and the foreshock suggests that the net heating of plasma is mediated via increase of the parallel temperature in the foreshock region where the ULF waves are present. We consider the possibility that a mechanism based on Landau damping, where solar wind plasma temperature parallel to the background magnetic field is increased by interaction with oblique compressible fast magneto-acoustic ULF waves, influences temperatureanisotropy

We report the first study of the correlation between elevated solar wind core plasma temperatures and temperatureanisotropy in the terrestrial foreshock. Plasma temperature is enhanced near the fire hose marginal stability threshold in the presence of ultra low frequency (ULF) large amplitude magnetic perturbations, which are intrinsically right-hand circularly polarized. Direct comparison of contemporaneous anisotropic temperatures in the upstream solar wind and the foreshock suggests that the net heating of plasma is mediated via increase of the parallel temperature in the foreshock region where the ULF waves are present. We consider the possibility that a mechanism based on Landau damping, where solar wind plasma temperature parallel to the background magnetic field is increased by interaction with oblique compressible fast magneto-acoustic ULF waves, influences temperatureanisotropy.

We present the results of an advanced parametrization of the temperatureanisotropy of electrons in the slow solar wind and the electromagnetic instabilities resulting from the interplay of their thermal core and suprathermal halo populations. A large set of observational data (from the Ulysses, Helios and Cluster missions) is used to parametrize these components and establish their correlations. Comparative analysis demonstrates for the first time a particular implication of the suprathermal electrons which are less dense but hotter than thermal electrons. The instabilities are significantly stimulated by the interplay of the core and halo populations, leading to lower thresholds which shape the observed limits of the temperatureanisotropy for both the core and halo populations. This double agreement strongly suggests that the selfgenerated instabilities play the major role in constraining the electron anisotropy.

The central issue in high-temperature cuprate superconductors is the pseudogap state appearing below the pseudogap temperature T*, which is well above the superconducting transition temperature. In this study, we theoretically investigate the rapid increase of the magnetic anisotropy below the pseudogap temperature detected by the recent torque-magnetometry measurements on YBa2Cu3Oy [Y. Sato et al., 10.1038/nphys4205" xlink:type="simple">Nat. Phys. 13, 1074 (2017)]. Applying the spin Green's function formalism including the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction arising from the buckling of the CuO2 plane, we obtain results that are in good agreement with the experiment and find a scaling relationship. Our analysis suggests that the characteristic temperature associated with the magnetic anisotropy, which coincides with T*, is not a phase transition temperature but a crossover temperature associated with the short-range antiferromagnetic order.

Compton proﬁles of momentum distribution of conduction electrons in the orthorhombic phase of -Ga metal at low temperature are calculated in the band model for the three crystallographic directions (100), (010), and (001). Unlike the results at room temperature, previously reported by Lengeler, Lasser and Mair, the ...

One of the major predictions of inflation is the existence of a stochastic background of cosmological gravitational waves (GW). These gravitational waves can induce significant temperatureanisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) on the angular scales recently probed by the Archeops experiment. Here, we perform a combined analysis of Archeops together with information from other CMB experiments and/or cosmological data sets, in order to constrain the amplitude of the GW background. We find that, for a scale-invariant GW background, the ratio of tensor-scalar perturbations at the CMB quadrupole is now constrained to be r≤0.43 at 95% C.L., while the bound on the spectral index of primordial density fluctuations is n S =0.97 -0.12 +0.10 . We discuss the implications for future GW detections through CMB polarization measurements

We present measurements of the E-mode polarization angular auto-power spectrum (EE) and temperature–E-mode cross-power spectrum (TE) of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) using 150 GHz data from three seasons of SPTpol observations. We report the power spectra over the spherical harmonic multipole range 50 1050 and {\\ell }> 1475, respectively. The observations cover 500 {\\deg }2, a fivefold increase in area compared to previous SPTpol analyses, which increases our sensitivity to the photon diffusion damping tail of the CMB power spectra enabling tighter constraints on ΛCDM model extensions. After masking all sources with unpolarized flux > 50 mJy, we place a 95% confidence upper limit on residual polarized point-source power of {D}{\\ell }={\\ell }({\\ell }+1){C}{\\ell }/2π masking. We find that the SPTpol data set is in mild tension with the ΛCDM model (2.1σ ), and different data splits prefer parameter values that differ at the ∼ 1 σ level. When fitting SPTpol data at {\\ell }data at {\\ell }> 1000 results in a preference for a higher value of the expansion rate ({H}0=71.3+/- 2.1 {km} {{{s}}}-1{{Mpc}}-1 ) and a lower value for present-day density fluctuations ({σ }8=0.77+/- 0.02).

Full Text Available The previous works on whistler waves with electron temperatureanisotropy narrated the dependence on plasma parameters, however, they did not explore the reasons behind the observed differences. A comparative analysis of the whistler waves with different electron distributions has not been made to date. This paper attempts to address both these issues in detail by making a detailed comparison of the dispersion relations and growth rates of whistler waves with electron temperatureanisotropy for Maxwellian, Cairns, kappa and generalized (r, q distributions by varying the key plasma parameters for the problem under consideration. It has been found that the growth rate of whistler instability is maximum for flat-topped distribution whereas it is minimum for the Maxwellian distribution. This work not only summarizes and complements the previous work done on the whistler waves with electron temperatureanisotropy but also provides a general framework to understand the linear propagation of whistler waves with electron temperatureanisotropy that is applicable in all regions of space plasmas where the satellite missions have indicated their presence.

Antiferromagnets play a key role in modern spintronic devices owing to their ability to modify the switching behavior of adjacent ferromagnets via the exchange bias effect. Consequently, detailed measurements of the spin structure at antiferromagnetic interfaces and surfaces are highly desirable, not only for advancing technologies but also for enabling new insights into the underlying physics. Here using spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy at room-temperature, we reveal in three-dimensions an orthogonal spin structure on antiferromagnetic compound nanopyramids. Contrary to expected uniaxial anisotropy based on bulk properties, the atomic terraces are found to have alternating in-plane and out-of-plane magnetic anisotropies. The observed layer-wise alternation in anisotropy could have strong influences on future nanoscale spintronic applications.

We derive an observational constraint on a spherical inhomogeneity of the void centered at our position from the angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and local measurements of the Hubble parameter. The late time behaviour of the void is assumed to be well described by the so-called Λ-Lemaȋtre-Tolman-Bondi (ΛLTB) solution. Then, we restrict the models to the asymptotically homogeneous models each of which is approximated by a flat Friedmann-Lemaȋtre-Robertson-Walker model. The late time ΛLTB models are parametrized by four parameters including the value of the cosmological constant and the local Hubble parameter. The other two parameters are used to parametrize the observed distance-redshift relation. Then, the ΛLTB models are constructed so that they are compatible with the given distance-redshift relation. Including conventional parameters for the CMB analysis, we characterize our models by seven parameters in total. The local Hubble measurements are reflected in the prior distribution of the local Hubble parameter. As a result of a Markov-Chains-Monte-Carlo analysis for the CMBtemperature and polarization anisotropies, we found that the inhomogeneous universe models with vanishing cosmological constant are ruled out as is expected. However, a significant under-density around us is still compatible with the angular power spectrum of CMB and the local Hubble parameter.

Bone drilling is widely used in orthopaedics for fracture treatment, reconstructive surgery and bone biopsy. Heat generation in bone drilling can cause rise in bone temperature resulting in prolonged healing time or loosening of fixation. The purpose of this study was to investigate thermal anisotropy of bone by measuring the level of temperature in bone drilling with and without cooling conditions in two anatomical directions. Drilling tests were performed on bovine cortical bone. A total of fifteen specimens were used to obtain data for statistical analysis. Temperature near the cutting zone was measured in two anatomical directions. i.e. along the longitudinal and circumferential direction. Temperature distribution was also found in the two prescribed directions. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to identify significant drilling parameter affecting bone temperature. Drilling speed, feed rate and drill size were found influential parameters affecting bone temperature. Higher drilling speed, feed rate, and large drill size were found to cause elevated temperature in bone. Much lower temperature was measured in bone when cooling fluid was supplied to the drilling region. Experimental results revealed lower temperatures in the circumferential direction compared to the longitudinal direction. Thermal anisotropy for heat transport was found in the bone. This study recommends lower drilling speed and feed rate and cooling for controlling rise in bone temperature.

Parity violating physics beyond the standard model of particle physics induces a rotation of the linear polarization of photons. This effect, also known as cosmological birefringence (CB), can be tested with the observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies which are linearly polarized at the level of 5–10%. In particular CB produces non-null CMB cross correlations between temperature and B mode-polarization, and between E- and B-mode polarization. Here we study the properties of the so called D-estimators, often used to constrain such an effect. After deriving the framework of both frequentist and Bayesian analysis, we discuss the interplay between birefringence and weak-lensing, which, albeit parity conserving, modifies pre-existing TB and EB cross correlation.

In the last few decades, advances in observational cosmology have given us a standard model of cosmology. The basic cosmological parameters have been laid out to high precision. Cosmologists have started asking questions about the nature of the cosmological initial conditions. Many ambitious experiments such as Planck satellite, EBEX, ACT, CAPMAP, QUaD, BICEP, SPIDER, QUIET, and GEM are underway. Experiments like these will provide us with a wealth of information about CMB polarization, CMB lensing, and polarization foregrounds. These experiments will be complemented with great observational campaigns to map the 3D structure in the Universe and new particle physics constraints from the Large Hadron Collider. In my graduate work I have made explicit how observations of the CMBtemperature and E-polarization anisotropies can be combined to provide optimal constraints on models of the early universe at the highest energies. I have developed new ways of constraining models of the early universe using CMBtemperature and polarization data. Inflation is one of the most promising theories of the early universe. Different inflationary models predict different amounts of non-Gaussian perturbations. Although any non-Gaussianity predicted by the canonical inflation model is very small, there exist models which can generate significant amounts of non-Gaussianities. Hence any characterization of non-Gaussianity of the primordial perturbations constrains the models of inflation. The information in the bispectrum (or higher order moments) is completely independent of the power spectrum constraints on the amplitude of primordial power spectrum (A), the scalar spectral index of the primordial power spectrum ns, and the running of the primordial power spectrum. My work has made it possible to extract the bispectrum information from large, high resolution CMBtemperature and polarization data. We have demonstrated that the primordial adiabatic perturbations can be reconstructed using

The nature of convective instability has been investigated for an electromagnetic wave, either right circularly polarised or left circularly polarised, propagating along a magnetic line of force in a plasma whose distribution function exhibits a temperatureanisotropy in the hot species, a loss cone structure and a beam of cold electrons or ions travelling along the line of force with velocity V 1 . Detailed numerical calculations have been made using a computer for the growth and decay of the wave for different values of the anisotropy ratio Tsub(perpendicular to)/Tsub(parallel to) delta of the perpendicular and parallel temperatures, the McIlwain parameter L, the loss cone index j, velocity V 1 of the streaming particle and the particle density ratio epsilon. The ranges of the values of epsilon and delta for which the waves becomes unstable have been studied in detail. It is found that wave propagation shows no dependence on the loss cone index but shows very strong dependence on the temperatureanisotropy delta. (author)

We study the impact of a stochastic background of primordial magnetic fields on the scalar contribution of cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies and on the matter power spectrum. We give the correct initial conditions for cosmological perturbations and the exact expressions for the energy density and Lorentz force associated to the stochastic background of primordial magnetic fields, given a power-law for their spectra cut at a damping scale. The dependence of the CMBtemperature and polarization spectra on the relevant parameters of the primordial magnetic fields is illustrated.

We review in a pedagogical way the present status of the impact of non-Gaussianity (NG) on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies. We first show how to set the initial conditions at second-order for the (gauge invariant) CMBanisotropies when some primordial NG is present. However, there are many sources of NG in CMBanisotropies, beyond the primordial one, which can contaminate the primordial signal. We mainly focus on the NG generated from the post-inflationary evolution of the CMBanisotropies at second-order in perturbation theory at large and small angular scales, such as the ones generated at the recombination epoch. We show how to derive the equations to study the second-order CMBanisotropies and provide analytical computations to evaluate their contamination to primordial NG (complemented with numerical examples). We also offer a brief summary of other secondary effects. This review requires basic knowledge of the theory of cosmological perturbations at the linear level.

microwave background (CMBanisotropies. We first show how to set the initial conditions at second order for the CMBanisotropies when some primordial NG is present. However, there are many sources of NG in CMBanisotropies, beyond the primordial one, which can contaminate the primordial signal. We mainly focus on the NG generated from the post inflationary evolution of the CMBanisotropies at second order in perturbation theory at large and small angular scales, such as the ones generated at the recombination epoch. We show how to derive the equations to study the second-order CMBanisotropies and provide analytical computations to evaluate their contamination to primordial NG (complemented with numerical examples. We also offer a brief summary of other secondary effects. This paper requires basic knowledge of the theory of cosmological perturbations at the linear level.

The 21-cm line fluctuations and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) are powerful probes of the epoch of reionization of the Universe. We study the potential of the cross-correlation between 21-cm line fluctuations and CMBanisotropy to obtain further constraints on the reionization history. We

Recent cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations put strong constraints on the spatial curvature via estimation of the parameter Ω{sub k} assuming an almost scale invariant primordial power spectrum. We study the evolution of the background geometry and gauge-invariant scalar perturbations in an inflationary closed FLRW model and calculate the primordial power spectrum. We find that the inflationary dynamics is modified due to the presence of spatial curvature, leading to corrections to the nearly scale invariant power spectrum at the end of inflation. When evolved to the surface of last scattering, the resulting temperatureanisotropy spectrum ( C {sup TT}{sub ℓ}) shows deficit of power at low multipoles (ℓ < 20). By comparing our results with the recent Planck data we discuss the role of spatial curvature in accounting for CMB anomalies and in the estimation of the parameter Ω{sub k}. Since the curvature effects are limited to low multipoles, the Planck estimation of cosmological parameters remains robust under inclusion of positive spatial curvature.

Extremely large magnetoresistance (XMR) was recently discovered in WTe_{2}, triggering extensive research on this material regarding the XMR origin. Since WTe_{2} is a layered compound with metal layers sandwiched between adjacent insulating chalcogenide layers, this material has been considered to be electronically two-dimensional (2D). Here we report two new findings on WTe_{2}: (1) WTe_{2} is electronically 3D with a mass anisotropy as low as 2, as revealed by the 3D scaling behavior of the resistance R(H,θ)=R(ϵ_{θ}H) with ϵ_{θ}=(cos^{2}θ+γ^{-2}sin^{2}θ)^{1/2}, θ being the magnetic field angle with respect to the c axis of the crystal and γ being the mass anisotropy and (2) the mass anisotropy γ varies with temperature and follows the magnetoresistance behavior of the Fermi liquid state. Our results not only provide a general scaling approach for the anisotropic magnetoresistance but also are crucial for correctly understanding the electronic properties of WTe_{2}, including the origin of the remarkable "turn-on" behavior in the resistance versus temperature curve, which has been widely observed in many materials and assumed to be a metal-insulator transition.

Effects of temperatureanisotropies on the early stage refilling of the outer plasmasphere are studied by solving an appropriate set of hydrodynamic equations. The anisotropies result from the supersonic outflows from the conjugate ionospheres and from the perpendicular ion heating in the equatorial region. The equatorial ion heating affected by wave-particle interaction is included phenomenologically. Even for the equatorial heating associated with moderate wave levels, the mirror force on the flows severely limits the interhemispheric plasma exchange. The temporal evolution of the flow developing in an empty flux tube is characterized by: (1) supersonic plasma outflows from the conjugate ionospheres, (2) reflections of the flows by the mirror force as they begin to penetrate into the opposite hemispheres, (3) formation of shocks in the reflection region and (4) propagations of the shocks to the ionospheres of the origins of the flows. In the quasi-steady state when flow completely subsides, the density distribution in the flux tube shows distinctive large-scale features, determined by the balance between electric, pressure and anisotropy forces. The latter force becomes significant in a broad equatorial region where T t >> T p and also at relatively high geomagnetic latitudes where T t p ; T t and T p are the perpendicular and parallel ion temperatures, respectively

Full Text Available Based on the limiting continuation of Lorentz-Poincaré invariance, we propose an alternative formulation of the generalized Planck distribution for inertial and noninertial frames. The Lorentz invariant Planck distribution law leads to a new physical interpretation of the dipole anisotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background. The Big Jets model predicts a distant ‘antimatter blackbody,’ whose radiations could make 50% of the sky very slightly warmer than the isotropic CMBtemperature TCMB with a cosine function. The other 50% of the sky has the same isotropic temperature TCMB. Thus, we could have a pseudo-dipole anisotropy because the microwaves emitted from the antimatter blackbody are totally absorbed by our matter blackbody. We suggest that accurate data of satellite experiments might be used to search for the pseudo-dipole anisotropy and the missing half of the antimatter universe.

We perform molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the motion of phosphorene nanoflakes on a large graphene substrate under a thermal gradient. It is found that the atomic interaction between the graphene substrate and the phosphorene nanoflake generates distinct rates of motion for phosphorene nanoflakes with different orientations. Remarkably, for square phosphorene nanoflakes, the motion of zigzag-oriented nanoflakes is 2-fold faster than those of armchair-oriented and randomly-oriented nanoflakes. This large diffusion anisotropy suggests that sorting of phosphorene nanoflakes into specific orientations can be realized by a temperature gradient. The findings here provide interesting insights into strong molecular diffusion anisotropy and offer a novel route for manipulating two-dimensional materials.

Time and temperature dependent rock deformation has both scientific and socio-economic implications for natural hazards, the oil and gas industry and nuclear waste disposal. During the past decades, most studies on brittle creep have focused on igneous rocks and porous sedimentary rocks. To our knowledge, only few studies have been carried out on the brittle creep behavior of shale. We conducted a series of creep experiments on shale specimens coming from the French Institute for Nuclear Safety (IRSN) underground research laboratory located in Tournemire, France, under two different temperatures (26°C, 75°C) and confining pressures (10 MPa, 80 MPa), for three orientations (σ1along, perpendicular and 45° to bedding). In these long-term experiments (approximately 10 days), stress and strains were recorded continuously, while ultrasonic acoustic velocities were recorded every 1 15 minutes. The brittle creep failure stress of our Tournemire shale samples was systematically observed 50% higher than its short-term peak strength, with larger final axial strain accumulated. During creep, ultrasonic wave velocities first decreased, and then increased gradually. The magnitude of elastic wave velocity variations showed an important orientation and temperature dependence: velocities measured perpendicular to bedding showed increased variation, variation that was enhanced at higher temperature and higher pressure. The case of complete elastic anisotropy reversal was observed for sample deformed perpendicular to bedding, with amount of axial strain needed to reach anisotropy reversal reduced at higher temperature. SEM observations highlight the competition between crack growth, sealing/healing, and possibly mineral rotation, pressure solution or anisotropic compaction during creep defromation. Our study highlights that the short-term peak strength has little meaning in shale material, which can over-consolidate importantly by `plastic' flow. In addition, we show that elastic

Land surface temperature (LST) as a key variable plays an important role on hydrological, meteorology and climatological study. Thermal infrared directional anisotropy is one of essential factors to LST retrieval and application on longwave radiance estimation. Many approaches have been proposed to estimate directional brightness temperatures (DBT) over natural and urban surfaces. While less efforts focus on 3-D scene and the surface component temperatures used in DBT models are quiet difficult to acquire. Therefor a combined 3-D model of TRGM (Thermal-region Radiosity-Graphics combined Model) and energy balance method is proposed in the paper for the attempt of synchronously simulation of component temperatures and DBT in the row planted canopy. The surface thermodynamic equilibrium can be final determined by the iteration strategy of TRGM and energy balance method. The combined model was validated by the top-of-canopy DBTs using airborne observations. The results indicated that the proposed model performs well on the simulation of directional anisotropy, especially the hotspot effect. Though we find that the model overestimate the DBT with Bias of 1.2K, it can be an option as a data reference to study temporal variance of component temperatures and DBTs when field measurement is inaccessible

We develop a Maximum Likelihood estimator (MLE) to measure the masses of galaxy clusters through the impact of gravitational lensing on the temperature and polarization anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). We show that, at low noise levels in temperature, this optimal estimator outperforms the standard quadratic estimator by a factor of two. For polarization, we show that the Stokes Q/U maps can be used instead of the traditional E- and B-mode maps without losing information. We test and quantify the bias in the recovered lensing mass for a comprehensive list of potential systematic errors. Using realistic simulations, we examine the cluster mass uncertainties from CMB-cluster lensing as a function of an experiment's beam size and noise level. We predict the cluster mass uncertainties will be 3 - 6% for SPT-3G, AdvACT, and Simons Array experiments with 10,000 clusters and less than 1% for the CMB-S4 experiment with a sample containing 100,000 clusters. The mass constraints from CMB polarization are very sensitive to the experimental beam size and map noise level: for a factor of three reduction in either the beam size or noise level, the lensing signal-to-noise improves by roughly a factor of two.

The two fundamental assumptions of the standard cosmological model - that the initial fluctuations are statistically isotropic and Gaussian - are rigorously tested using maps of the CMBanisotropy from the \\Planck\\ satellite. The detailed results are based on studies of four independent estimates...

The neoclassical transport theory in a presence of temperatureanisotropy is investigated in the low to the intermediate collision frequency regimes for a large aspect-ratio tokamak plasma. The standard procedure for an isotropic plasma in the plateau regime is extended to an anisotropic plasma, and the neoclassical transport coefficients in this regime are explicitly calculated. By interpolating the results in the plateau regime and the previously obtained ones in the banana regime, the expressions for the neoclassical transport coefficients which are continuously valid from the banana to the plateau regimes are presented. (author)

The influence of plastic deformation on the superconductive critical temperature of tin single crystals has been investigated experimentally. It was shown by measurements that the lattice defects produced by plastic deformation lead to an anisotropy effect (according to the theory of Markowitz and Kadanoff), as do impurities in alloyed material. The decrease in T/sub c/ due to this effect can be measured, however, only with samples of certain special orientations. Samples with other orientations show an increase in T/sub c/, which can be explained by the assumption of internal stresses from dislocation pileups. A model is discussed which accounts for the measured rise in T/sub c/

Silk damping at redshifts 1.5 × 10 4 ∼ 6 erases CMBanisotropies on scales corresponding to the comoving wavenumbers 8∼ 4 Mpc −1 (10 5 ∼ 8 ). This dissipated energy is gained by the CMB monopole, creating distortions from a blackbody in the CMB spectrum of the μ-type and the i-type. We study, using Fisher matrices, the constraints we can get from measurements of these spectral distortions on the primordial power spectrum from future experiments such as Pixie, and how these constraints change as we change the frequency resolution and the sensitivity of the experiment. We show that the additional information in the shape of the i-type distortions, in combination with the μ-type distortions, allows us to break the degeneracy between the amplitude and the spectral index of the power spectrum on these scales and leads to much tighter constraints. We quantify the information contained in both the μ-type distortions and the i-type distortions taking into account the partial degeneracy with the y-type distortions and the temperature of the blackbody part of the CMB. We also calculate the constraints possible on the primordial power spectrum when the spectral distortion information is combined with the CMBanisotropies measured by the WMAP, SPT, ACT and Planck experiments

We explore the magnetic anisotropy of GaMnAs ferromagnetic semiconductor by Planar Hall Effect (PHE) measurements. Using low magnitude of applied magnetic field (i.e., when the magnitude H is smaller than both cubic Hc and uniaxial Hu anisotropy field), we have observed various shapes of applied magnetic field direction dependence of Planar Hall Resistance (PHR). In particular, in two regions of temperature. At T Tc/2 the "zigzag-shape" signal of PHR. They reflect different magnetic anisotropy and provide information about magnetization reversal process in GaMnAs ferromagnetic semiconductor. The theoretical model calculation of PHR based on the free energy density reproduces well the experimental data. We report also the temperature dependence of anisotropy constants and magnetization orientations. The transition of easy axis from biaxial to uniaxiale axes has been observed and confirmed by SQUID measurements.

Dipolar interactions in a soft/Pd/hard [CoNi/Pd]{sub 30}/Pd/[Co/Pd]{sub 20} multilayer system, where a thick Pd layer between two ferromagnetic units prevents direct exchange coupling, are directly revealed by combining magnetometry and state-of-the-art layer resolving soft x-ray imaging techniques with sub-100-nm spatial resolution. The domains forming in the soft layer during external magnetic field reversal are found to match the domains previously trapped in the hard layer. The low Curie temperature of the soft layer allows varying its intrinsic parameters via temperature and thus studying the competition with dipolar fields due to the domains in the hard layer. Micromagnetic simulations elucidate the role of [CoNi/Pd] magnetization, exchange, and anisotropy in the duplication process. Finally, thermally driven domain replication in remanence during temperature cycling is demonstrated.

The magnetic anisotropy measurements of metallic Y-Ba-Cu-O compounds in the normal phase reveal a temperature-dependent diamagnetic component of the susceptibility that increases with decreasing temperature. The temperature variation of the susceptibility anisotropy and its total change do not seem to be much affected by the presence of the superconductivity at some lower temperature and could not be accounted for by superconducting fluctuations. Rather, the data remind one of the behavior of some quasi-two-dimensional metals with anisotropic Fermi surfaces, reflecting the properties of the low-energy excitations in the normal phase. The anisotropy measurements above the bulk superconducting transition temperature T c reveal the nonlinear effects, which are due to the onset of superconductivity in disconnected grains. The existence of a two-step transition, typical for granular superconductors, should be taken into consideration if the normal-phase susceptibility data are compared with the theoretical predictions in the vicinity of T c

The magnetic properties of Nd-Fe-B thin films with the three different compositions (#1: Nd12.6Fe81.5B5.9, #2: Nd14.6Fe78.1B7.4 and #3: Nd22.6Fe66.2B11.2) are discussed. With increasing Nd content, the c-axis orientation along the film normal is enhanced. It is found that sample #2 possesses the saturation magnetization Ms very close to that for Nd2Fe14B over a temperature range from 100 to about 300K. The magnetic anisotropy constant Ku2 for sample #2 is the highest among those samples, but smaller by about 20%, as compared to that for Nd2Fe14B. It is of interest to note that the temperature TR at which Ku1 changes its sign is lower by about 30K as compared to that previously reported for Nd2Fe14B. The reason for this discrepancy is not clear, but could be due to the presence of the minority phases of Nd-rich compounds and also a possible contribution of the magneto-elastic effect to the net magnetic anisotropy.

Full Text Available A three Dimensional finite element model (FEM incorporating the anisotropic properties and temperature profile of hot mix asphalt (HMA pavement was developed to predict the structural responses of HMA pavement subject to heavy loads typically encountered in the field. In this study, ABAQUS was adopted to model the stress and strain relationships within the pavement structure. The results of the model were verified using data collected from the Korean Highway Corporation Test Road (KHCTR. The results demonstrated that both the base course and surface course layers follow the anisotropic behavior and the incorporation of the temperature profile throughout the pavement has a substantial effect on the pavement response predictions that impact pavement design. The results also showed that the anisotropy level of HMA and base material can be reduced to as low as 80% and 15% as a result of repeated loading, respectively.

Tensor Minkowski Functionals (TMFs) are tensor generalizations of the usual Minkowski Functionals which are scalar quantities. We introduce them here for use in cosmological analysis, in particular to analyze the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation. They encapsulate information about the shapes of structures and the orientation of distributions of structures. We focus on one of the TMFs, namely W {sub 2}{sup 1,1}, which is the (1,1) rank tensor generalization of the genus. The ratio of the eigenvalues of the average of W {sub 2}{sup 1,1} over all structures, α, encodes the net orientation of the structures; and the average of the ratios of the eigenvalues of W {sub 2}{sup 1,1} for each structure, β, encodes the net intrinsic anisotropy of the structures. We have developed a code that computes W {sub 2}{sup 1,1}, and from it α and β, for a set of structures on the 2-dimensional Euclidean plane. We use it to compute α and β as functions of chosen threshold levels for simulated Gaussian and isotropic CMBtemperature and E mode fields. We obtain the value of α to be one for both temperature and E mode, which means that we recover the statistical isotropy of density fluctuations that we input in the simulations. We find that the standard ΛCDM model predicts a charateristic shape of β for temperature and E mode as a function of the threshold, and the average over thresholds is β∼ 0.62 for temperature and β∼ 0.63 for E mode. Accurate measurements of α and β can be used to test the standard model of cosmology and to search for deviations from it. For this purpose we compute α and β for temperature and E mode data of various data sets from PLANCK mission. We compare the values measured from observed data with those obtained from simulations to which instrument beam and noise characteristics of the 44GHz frequency channel have been added (which are provided as part of the PLANCK data release). We find very good agreement of β and α between all

The hypothesis of the self-induced collapse of the inflaton wave function was proposed as responsible for the emergence of inhomogeneity and anisotropy at all scales. This proposal was studied within an almost de Sitter space-time approximation for the background, which led to a perfect scale-invariant power spectrum, and also for a quasi-de Sitter background, which allows to distinguish departures from the standard approach due to the inclusion of the collapse hypothesis. In this work we perform a Bayesian model comparison for two different choices of the self-induced collapse in a full quasi-de Sitter expansion scenario. In particular, we analyze the possibility of detecting the imprint of these collapse schemes at low multipoles of the anisotropytemperature power spectrum of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) using the most recent data provided by the Planck Collaboration. Our results show that one of the two collapse schemes analyzed provides the same Bayesian evidence of the minimal standard cosmological model ΛCDM, while the other scenario is weakly disfavoured with respect to the standard cosmology.

Future arcminute resolution polarization data from ground-based Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) observations can be used to estimate the contribution to the temperature power spectrum from the primary anisotropies and to uncover the signature of reionization near ℓ=1500 in the small angular-scale temperature measurements. Our projections are based on combining expected small-scale E-mode polarization measurements from Advanced ACTPol in the range 300temperature data from the full Planck mission in the low and intermediate ℓ region, 2temperature spectrum at high multipoles to better than 1% accuracy. Assuming an efficient cleaning from multi-frequency channels of most foregrounds in the temperature data, we investigate the sensitivity to the only residual secondary component, the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) term. The CMB polarization is used to break degeneracies between primordial and secondary terms present in temperature and, in effect, to remove from the temperature data all but the residual kSZ term. We estimate a 15σ detection of the diffuse homogeneous kSZ signal from expected AdvACT temperature data at ℓ>1500, leading to a measurement of the amplitude of matter density fluctuations, σ{sub 8}, at 1% precision. Alternatively, by exploring the reionization signal encoded in the patchy kSZ measurements, we bound the time and duration of the reionization with σ(z{sub re})=1.1 and σ(Δz{sub re})=0.2. We find that these constraints degrade rapidly with large beam sizes, which highlights the importance of arcminute-scale resolution for future CMB surveys.

In this paper, we use the current and future cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments to test the Charge-Parity-Time Reversal (CPT) symmetry. We consider a CPT-violating interaction in the photon sector L{sub cs}∼p{sub μ}A{sub ν} F-tilde {sup μν}, which gives rise to a rotation of the polarization vectors of the propagating CMB photons. By combining the 9 yr WMAP, BOOMERanG 2003, and BICEP1 observations, we obtain the current constraint on the isotropic rotation angle α-bar =−2.12±1.14 (1σ), indicating that the significance of the CPT violation is about 2σ. Here, we particularly take the systematic errors of CMB measurements into account. Then, we study the effects of the anisotropies of the rotation angle [Δα( n-hat )] on the CMB polarization power spectra in detail. Due to the small effects, the current CMB polarization data cannot constrain the related parameters very well. We obtain the 95% C.L. upper limit of the variance of the anisotropies of the rotation angle C {sup α}(0) < 0.035 from all of the CMB data sets. More interestingly, including the anisotropies of rotation angle could lower the best-fit value of r and relax the tension on the constraints of r between BICEP2 and Planck. Finally, we investigate the capabilities of future Planck polarization measurements on α-bar and Δα( n-hat ). Benefited from the high precision of Planck data, the constraints of the rotation angle can be significantly improved.

Full Text Available In this first attempt to extract a map of the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (KSZ temperature fluctuations from the cosmic microwave background (CMBanisotropies, we use a method which is based on simple and minimal assumptions. We first focus on the intrinsic limitations of the method due to the cosmological signal itself. We demonstrate using simulated maps that the KSZ reconstructed maps are in quite good agreement with the original input signal with a correlation coefficient between original and reconstructed maps of on average, and an error on the standard deviation of the reconstructed KSZ map of only % on average. To achieve these results, our method is based on the fact that some first-step component separation provides us with (i a map of Compton parameters for the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (TSZ effect of galaxy clusters, and (ii a map of temperature fluctuations which is the sum of primary CMB and KSZ signals. Our method takes benefit from the spatial correlation between KSZ and TSZ effects which are both due to the same galaxy clusters. This correlation allows us to use the TSZ map as a spatial template in order to mask, in the map, the pixels where the clusters must have imprinted an SZ fluctuation. In practice, a series of TSZ thresholds is defined and for each threshold, we estimate the corresponding KSZ signal by interpolating the CMB fluctuations on the masked pixels. The series of estimated KSZ maps is finally used to reconstruct the KSZ map through the minimisation of a criterion taking into account two statistical properties of the KSZ signal (KSZ dominates over primary anisotropies at small scales, KSZ fluctuations are non-Gaussian distributed. We show that the results are quite sensitive to the effect of beam convolution, especially for large beams, and to the corruption by instrumental noise.

Research highlights: → A detailed analysis of crystal field effect is presented, and a set of new crystal field parameters is given to study the magnetic behaviors of the paramagnetic praseodymium gallium garnet (PrGaG). → The contribution of the exchange interaction between the praseodymium ions to the magnetic properties of PrGaG is further explored. Meanwhile, some characteristics of exchange interaction are revealed. → With the consideration of crystal field and exchange interaction, the available experiments are successfully fitted by our theoretical model. → Our theory suggests that PrGaG is ferromagnetic ordering at low temperatures, and the exchange interaction is anisotropic. - Abstract: In this paper, with the consideration of crystal field and exchange interaction between the rare-earth Pr 3+ ions, the magnetic anisotropy in praseodymium gallium garnet (PrGaG) in high magnetic fields and at low temperatures is theoretically analyzed. A set of relatively suitable CF parameters is obtained by studying the influence of the variations of nine CF parameters on the magnetization. However, only taking crystal field effect into account, theoretical calculations indicate that the experiments cannot be excellently interpreted. Then, the exchange interaction between Pr 3+ ion, which can be described as an effective exchange field H v = vM = vχH e = ηH e , is further considered. On the other hand, by evaluating the variation of the parameter η with the magnetic fields, our theory implies that PrGaG exhibits ferrimagnetic ordering at low temperatures, and the exchange interaction in PrGaG displays obvious anisotropy. Also, the theoretical data show better agreements with the experimental results.

The Planck cosmic microwave background temperature data are best fit with a ΛCDM model that mildly contradicts constraints from other cosmological probes. The South Pole Telescope (SPT) 2540 {\\deg }2 SPT-SZ survey offers measurements on sub-degree angular scales (multipoles 650≤slant {\\ell }≤slant 2500) with sufficient precision to use as an independent check of the Planck data. Here we build on the recent joint analysis of the SPT-SZ and Planck data in Hou et al. by comparing ΛCDM parameter estimates using the temperature power spectrum from both data sets in the SPT-SZ survey region. We also restrict the multipole range used in parameter fitting to focus on modes measured well by both SPT and Planck, thereby greatly reducing sample variance as a driver of parameter differences and creating a stringent test for systematic errors. We find no evidence of systematic errors from these tests. When we expand the maximum multipole of SPT data used, we see low-significance shifts in the angular scale of the sound horizon and the physical baryon and cold dark matter densities, with a resulting trend to higher Hubble constant. When we compare SPT and Planck data on the SPT-SZ sky patch to Planck full-sky data but keep the multipole range restricted, we find differences in the parameters n s and {A}s{e}-2τ . We perform further checks, investigating instrumental effects and modeling assumptions, and we find no evidence that the effects investigated are responsible for any of the parameter shifts. Taken together, these tests reveal no evidence for systematic errors in SPT or Planck data in the overlapping sky coverage and multipole range and at most weak evidence for a breakdown of ΛCDM or systematic errors influencing either the Planck data outside the SPT-SZ survey area or the SPT data at {\\ell }> 2000.

In this Letter, we search for concentric circles with low variance in cosmic microwave background sky maps. The detection of such circles would hint at new physics beyond the current cosmological concordance model, which states that the universe is isotropic and homogeneous, and filled with Gaussian fluctuations. We first describe a set of methods designed to detect such circles, based on matched filters and χ 2 statistics, and then apply these methods to the best current publicly available data, the 7 year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) temperature sky maps. We compare the observations with an ensemble of 1000 Gaussian ΛCDM simulations. Based on these tests, we conclude that the WMAP sky maps are fully compatible with the Gaussian and isotropic hypothesis as measured by low-variance ring statistics.

High-temperature superconductors (HTSCs) array with aligned growth section boundary (GSB) pattern (AGSBP) exhibits larger levitation force and suppression of levitation force decay above a permanent magnet guideway (PMG) compared with misaligned GSB pattern (MGSBP) has been studied in maglev train application (Zheng et al., 2013). This result maybe helpful and support a new way for the HTS bearing design for flywheel systems. So, in this paper, we further examine this growth anisotropy effect on the maglev performance of flywheel system. Levitation force and coasting time were investigated from the point-view of HTS flywheel applications. The GS/GSB alignment of AGSBP bulk HTSCs produces larger levitation force than that of MGSBP, but the coasting time is shorter than that of MGSBP, that is to say, the electric magnetic drag force with AGSBP is larger than that of MGSBP. This result may also exist in the maglev guideline when the maglev train stops freely.

In order to improve the comportment modelling of PWR fuel pin, and more precisely their canning tubes, Framatome and the CEA have undertake an important study program of Zircaloy-4 mechanical properties. It includes in particular the study of the plasticity between 20 and 400 degree Celsius. This material being not isotropic because of the zirconium hexagonal crystal network and the texture presented by the canning tubes, its plastic anisotropy has been measured. The obtained results for the canning in *slack* and recrystallized before irradiation Zircaloy-4 are presented and the deformation systems able to explain the observed anisotropy is researched. (O.L.). 6 refs., 4 figs., 1 tab.

In this work we report ac initial magnetic susceptibility under pressure, singular point detection (SPD) and linear thermal expansion measurements in the Gd 3 (FeTi) 29 intermetallic compound. From these measurements we have determined the anisotropy field, the order temperature and its pressure dependence. The thermal expansion measurement shows an Invar-like anomaly at the order temperature, T C =520 K, which decreases under increasing pressure with a slope of dT C /dp=-2.7 K/kbar. As the Gd 3+ ion is isotropic, no contribution to the anisotropy from the 4f sublattice is expected and low values of the anisotropy fields have been observed. (orig.)

The first nonvanishing magnetic anisotropy coefficient is calculated as a function of temperature for any spin quantum number and all temperatures below the Curie temperature for the case of face-centred cubic symmetry within the random-phase approximation (RPA). A detailed and instructive comparison between the mean-field and the RPA predictions is carried out. The RPA magnetization curves are also given for the first time for spins S>1/2. Most of the theoretical considerations are quite general as regard lattice type and even decoupling scheme and can thus be applied straightforwardly to other cases of interest. The progress reported here has been attained with the help of a new simplified and improved parametric approach and of a recent calculation of the average occupation number of magnons within the RPA. In particular, the new approach makes unnecessary the solving of integral equations so that the proposed procedure is especially simple and practically versatile in applications to any particular anisotropic material. (author). Refs, 6 figs

We present a comparison between WIND/SWE observations (Kasper et al., 2006) of beta parallel to p and T perpendicular to p/T parallel to p (where beta parallel to p is the proton parallel beta and T perpendicular to p and T parallel to p are the perpendicular and parallel proton are the perpendicular and parallel proton temperatures, respectively; here parallel and perpendicular indicate directions with respect to the ambient magnetic field) and predictions of the Vlasov linear theory. In the slow solar wind, the observed proton temperatureanisotropy seems to be constrained by oblique instabilities, by the mirror one and the oblique fire hose, contrary to the results of the linear theory which predicts a dominance of the proton cyclotron instability and the parallel fire hose. The fast solar wind core protons exhibit an anticorrelation between beta parallel to c and T perpendicular to c/T parallel to c (where beta parallel to c is the core proton parallel beta and T perpendicular to c and T parallel to c are the perpendicular and parallel core proton temperatures, respectively) similar to that observed in the HELIOS data (Marsch et al., 2004).

The recombination history of the Universe provides a useful tool for constraining the annihilation of dark matter particles. Even a small fraction of dark matter particles annihilated during the cosmic dark age can provide sufficient energy to affect the ionization state of the baryonic gas. Although this effect is too small for neutralinos, lighter dark matter particle candidates, e.g. with mass of 1-100 MeV, which was proposed recently to explain the observed excess of positrons in the galactic center, may generate observable differences in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization anisotropies. The annihilations at the era of recombination affects mainly the CMBanisotropy at small angular scales (large l), and is distinctively different from the effect of early reionization. We perform a multiparameter analysis of the CMB data, including both the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) first year and three year data, and the ACBAR, Boomerang, CBI, and VSA data. Assuming that the observed excess of e + e - pairs in the galactic center region is produced by dark matter annihilation, and that a sizable fraction of the energy produced in the annihilation is deposited in the baryonic gas during recombination, we obtain a 95% dark matter mass limit of M<8 MeV with the current data set

We present a new method for calculating CMBanisotropies in a non-flat Friedmann universe, relying on a very stable algorithm for the calculation of hyperspherical Bessel functions, that can be pushed to arbitrary precision levels. We also introduce a new approximation scheme which gradually takes over in the flat space limit and leads to significant reductions of the computation time. Our method is implemented in the Boltzmann code class. It can be used to benchmark the accuracy of the camb code in curved space, which is found to match expectations. For default precision settings, corresponding to 0.1% for scalar temperature spectra and 0.2% for scalar polarisation spectra, our code is two to three times faster, depending on curvature. We also simplify the temperature and polarisation source terms significantly, so the different contributions to the Cl 's are easy to identify inside the code.

We present a new method for calculating CMBanisotropies in a non-flat Friedmann universe, relying on a very stable algorithm for the calculation of hyperspherical Bessel functions, that can be pushed to arbitrary precision levels. We also introduce a new approximation scheme which gradually takes over in the flat space limit, and significant speeds-up calculations. Our method is implemented in the Boltzmann code CLASS. It can be used to benchmark the accuracy of the CAMB code in curved space, which is found to match expectations. For default precision settings, corresponding to 0.1% for scalar temperature spectra and 0.2% for scalar polarisation spectra, our code is two to three times faster, depending on curvature. We also simplify the temperature and polarisation source terms significantly, so the different contributions to the $C_\\ell$'s are easy to identify inside the code.

We present a new method for calculating CMBanisotropies in a non-flat Friedmann universe, relying on a very stable algorithm for the calculation of hyperspherical Bessel functions, that can be pushed to arbitrary precision levels. We also introduce a new approximation scheme which gradually takes over in the flat space limit and leads to significant reductions of the computation time. Our method is implemented in the Boltzmann code class. It can be used to benchmark the accuracy of the camb code in curved space, which is found to match expectations. For default precision settings, corresponding to 0.1% for scalar temperature spectra and 0.2% for scalar polarisation spectra, our code is two to three times faster, depending on curvature. We also simplify the temperature and polarisation source terms significantly, so the different contributions to the C ℓ 's are easy to identify inside the code

Highlights: • Coasting time was investigated from the point-view of HTS flywheel applications. • The coasting time of aligned growth section boundary pattern (AGSBP) is shorter than that of MGSBP. • The electric magnetic drag force with AGSBP is larger than that of MGSBP. • This result may also exist in the maglev guideline when the maglev train stops freely. - Abstract: High-temperature superconductors (HTSCs) array with aligned growth section boundary (GSB) pattern (AGSBP) exhibits larger levitation force and suppression of levitation force decay above a permanent magnet guideway (PMG) compared with misaligned GSB pattern (MGSBP) has been studied in maglev train application (Zheng et al., 2013). This result maybe helpful and support a new way for the HTS bearing design for flywheel systems. So, in this paper, we further examine this growth anisotropy effect on the maglev performance of flywheel system. Levitation force and coasting time were investigated from the point-view of HTS flywheel applications. The GS/GSB alignment of AGSBP bulk HTSCs produces larger levitation force than that of MGSBP, but the coasting time is shorter than that of MGSBP, that is to say, the electric magnetic drag force with AGSBP is larger than that of MGSBP. This result may also exist in the maglev guideline when the maglev train stops freely

Highlights: • Coasting time was investigated from the point-view of HTS flywheel applications. • The coasting time of aligned growth section boundary pattern (AGSBP) is shorter than that of MGSBP. • The electric magnetic drag force with AGSBP is larger than that of MGSBP. • This result may also exist in the maglev guideline when the maglev train stops freely. - Abstract: High-temperature superconductors (HTSCs) array with aligned growth section boundary (GSB) pattern (AGSBP) exhibits larger levitation force and suppression of levitation force decay above a permanent magnet guideway (PMG) compared with misaligned GSB pattern (MGSBP) has been studied in maglev train application (Zheng et al., 2013). This result maybe helpful and support a new way for the HTS bearing design for flywheel systems. So, in this paper, we further examine this growth anisotropy effect on the maglev performance of flywheel system. Levitation force and coasting time were investigated from the point-view of HTS flywheel applications. The GS/GSB alignment of AGSBP bulk HTSCs produces larger levitation force than that of MGSBP, but the coasting time is shorter than that of MGSBP, that is to say, the electric magnetic drag force with AGSBP is larger than that of MGSBP. This result may also exist in the maglev guideline when the maglev train stops freely.

The investigation of the electronic structure and magnetism for the compound MnB(2) with crystal structure type AlB(2) has been revisited to resolve contradictions between various experimental and theoretical results present in the literature. We find that MnB(2) exhibits an interesting example of a Kübler's covalent magnetism (Williams et al 1981 J. Appl. Phys. 52 2069). The covalent magnetism also appears to be the source of some disagreement between the calculated values of the magnetic moments and those given by neutron diffraction experiments. We show that this shortcoming is due to the atomic sphere approximation applied in earlier calculations. The application of the disordered local moment approach and the calculation of the inter-atomic exchange interactions within the Liechtenstein formalism reveal strong local moment antiferromagnetism with a high Néel temperature predicted from Monte Carlo simulations. A fully relativistic band structure calculation and then the application of the torque method yields a strong in-plane anisotropy of the Mn magnetic moments. The agreement of these results with neutron diffraction studies rules out any possible weak itinerant electron magnetism scenarios as proposed earlier for MnB(2).

Mineralogical transformations and matter transfers within the Earth's mantle make the 350-1000 km depth range (considered here as the mantle transition zone) highly heterogeneous and anisotropic. Most of the 3-D global tomographic models are anchored on small perturbations from 1-D models such as PREM, and are secondly interpreted in terms of temperature and composition distributions. However, the degree of heterogeneity in the transition zone can be strong enough so that the concept of a 1-D reference seismic model may be addressed. To avoid the use of any seismic reference model, we developed a Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm to directly interpret surface wave dispersion curves in terms of temperature and radial anisotropy distributions, considering a given composition of the mantle. These interpretations are based on laboratory measurements of elastic moduli and Birch-Murnaghan equation of state. An originality of the algorithm is its ability to explore both smoothly varying models and first-order discontinuities, using C1-Bézier curves, which interpolate the randomly chosen values for depth, temperature and radial anisotropy. This parameterization is able to generate a self-adapting parameter space exploration while reducing the computing time. Using a Bayesian exploration, the probability distributions on temperature and anisotropy are governed by uncertainties on the data set. The method was successfully applied to both synthetic data and real dispersion curves. Surface wave measurements along the Vanuatu- California path suggest a strong anisotropy above 400 km depth which decreases below, and a monotonous temperature distribution between 350 and 1000 km depth. On the contrary, a negative shear wave anisotropy of about 2 % is found at the top of the transition zone below Eurasia. Considering compositions ranging from piclogite to pyrolite, the overall temperature profile and temperature gradient are higher for the continental path than for the oceanic

Full Text Available Magnetic fields are everywhere in nature, and they play an important role in every astronomical environment which involves the formation of plasma and currents. It is natural therefore to suppose that magnetic fields could be present in the turbulent high-temperature environment of the big bang. Such a primordial magnetic field (PMF would be expected to manifest itself in the cosmic microwave background (CMBtemperature and polarization anisotropies, and also in the formation of large-scale structure. In this paper, we summarize the theoretical framework which we have developed to calculate the PMF power spectrum to high precision. Using this formulation, we summarize calculations of the effects of a PMF which take accurate quantitative account of the time evolution of the cutoff scale. We review the constructed numerical program, which is without approximation, and an improvement over the approach used in a number of previous works for studying the effect of the PMF on the cosmological perturbations. We demonstrate how the PMF is an important cosmological physical process on small scales. We also summarize the current constraints on the PMF amplitude Bλ and the power spectral index nB which have been deduced from the available CMB observational data by using our computational framework.

String Theory and Supergravity allow, in principle, to follow the transition of the inflaton from pre-inflationary fast roll to slow roll. This introduces an infrared depression in the primordial power spectrum that might have left an imprint in the CMBanisotropy, if it occurred at accessible wavelengths. We model the effect extending $\\Lambda$CDM with a scale $\\Delta$ related to the infrared depression and explore the constraints allowed by {\\sc Planck} data, employing also more conservative, wider Galactic masks in the low resolution CMB likelihood. In an extended mask with $f_{sky}=39\\%$, we thus find $\\Delta = (0.351 \\pm 0.114) \\times 10^{-3} \\, \\mbox{Mpc}^{-1}$, at $99.4\\%$ confidence level, to be compared with a nearby value at $88.5\\%$ with the standard $f_{sky}=94\\%$ mask. With about 64 $e$--folds of inflation, these values for $\\Delta$ would translate into primordial energy scales ${\\cal O}(10^{14})$ GeV.

The electrodynamics modified by the Chern-Simons term L{sub cs}approxp{sub m}uA{sub n}uF-tilde{sup m}u{sup n}u with a non-vanishing p{sub m}u violates the Charge-Parity-Time Reversal symmetry (CPT) and rotates the linear polarizations of the propagating Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) photons. In this Letter we measure the rotation angle DELTAalpha by performing a global analysis on the current CMB polarization measurements from the five-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP5), BOOMERanG 2003 (B03), BICEP and QUaD using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo method. Neglecting the systematic errors of these experiments, we find that the results from WMAP5, B03 and BICEP all are consistent and their combination gives DELTAalpha=-2.62+-0.87deg (68% C.L.), indicating a 3sigma detection of the CPT violation. The QUaD data alone gives DELTAalpha=0.59+-0.42deg (68% C.L.) which has an opposite sign for the central value and smaller error bar compared to that obtained from WMAP5, B03 and BICEP. When combining all the polarization data together, we find DELTAalpha=0.09+-0.36deg (68% C.L.) which significantly improves the previous constraint on DELTAalpha and test the validity of the fundamental CPT symmetry at a higher level.

We investigate inflationary scenarios driven by a class of potentials which are similar in form to those that arise in certain minimal supersymmetric extensions of the standard model. We find that these potentials allow a brief period of departure from inflation sandwiched between two stages of slow roll inflation. We show that such a background behavior leads to a step like feature in the scalar power spectrum. We set the scales such that the drop in the power spectrum occurs at a length scale that corresponds to the Hubble radius today — a feature that seems necessary to explain the lower power observed in the quadrupole moment of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies. We perform a Markov Chain Monte Carlo analysis to determine the values of the model parameters that provide the best fit to the recent WMAP 5-year data for the CMB angular power spectrum. We find that an inflationary spectrum with a suppression of power at large scales that we obtain leads to a much better fit (with just one extra parameter, χ eff 2 improves by 6.62) of the observed data when compared to the best fit reference ΛCDM model with a featureless, power law, primordial spectrum

Improving matrix-product state techniques based on the purification of the density matrix, we are able to accurately calculate the finite-temperature dynamic response of the infinite spin-1 XXZ chain with single-ion anisotropy in the Haldane, large-D , and antiferromagnetic phases. Distinct thermally activated scattering processes make a significant contribution to the spectral weight in all cases. In the Haldane phase, intraband magnon scattering is prominent, and the on-site anisotropy causes the magnon to split into singlet and doublet branches. In the large-D phase response, the intraband signal is separated from an exciton-antiexciton continuum. In the antiferromagnetic phase, holons are the lowest-lying excitations, with a gap that closes at the transition to the Haldane state. At finite temperatures, scattering between domain-wall excitations becomes especially important and strongly enhances the spectral weight for momentum transfer π .

Within the next decade, experiments measuring the anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) will add greatly to our knowledge of the universe. There are dozens of experiments scheduled to take data over the next several years, capped by the satellite missions of NASA (MAP) and ESA (PLANCK). What will we learn from these experiments? I argue that the potential pay-off is immense: We are quite likely to determine cosmological parameters to unprecedented accuracy. This will provide key information about the theory of structure formation and even about the physics behind inflation. If the experiments succeed, can anything spoil this pay-off? I focus on three possible spoilers - foregrounds, reionization, and defect models - and argue that we have every reason to be optimistic

The time dependence of the anisotropy of fluorescence after an impulsive excitation in the molecular ring (resembling the B850 ring of the purple bacterium Rhodopseudomonas acidophila) is calculated. Fast fluctuations of the environment are simulated by dynamic disorder and slow fluctuations by uncorrelated static disorder. Without dynamic disorder modest degrees of static disorder are sufficient to cause the experimentally found initial drop of the anisotropy on a sub-100 fs time scale. In the present investigation we are comparing results for the time-dependent optical anisotropy of the molecular ring for four models of the uncorrelated static disorder: Gaussian disorder in the local energies (model A), Gaussian disorder in the transfer integrals (model B), Gaussian disorder in radial positions of molecules (model C) and Gaussian disorder in angular positions of molecules (model D). Both types of disorder-static and dynamic-are taken into account simultaneously

We use a forward multiscale model that couples atomistic modeling of intracrystalline plasticity mechanisms (dislocation glide ± twinning) in MgSiO3 post-perovskite (PPv) and periclase (MgO) at lower mantle pressures and temperatures to polycrystal plasticity simulations to predict crystal preferred orientations (CPO) development and seismic anisotropy in D″. We model the CPO evolution in aggregates of 70% PPv and 30% MgO submitted to simple shear, axial shortening, and along corner-flow streamlines, which simulate changes in flow orientation similar to those expected at the transition between a downwelling and flow parallel to the core-mantle boundary (CMB) within D″ or between CMB-parallel flow and upwelling at the borders of the large low shear wave velocity provinces (LLSVP) in the lowermost mantle. Axial shortening results in alignment of PPv [010] axes with the shortening direction. Simple shear produces PPv CPO with a monoclinic symmetry that rapidly rotates towards parallelism between the dominant [100](010) slip system and the macroscopic shear. These predictions differ from MgSiO3 post-perovskite textures formed in diamond-anvil cell experiments, but agree with those obtained in simple shear and compression experiments using CaIrO3 post-perovskite. Development of CPO in PPv and MgO results in seismic anisotropy in D″. For shear parallel to the CMB, at low strain, the inclination of ScS, Sdiff, and SKKS fast polarizations and delay times vary depending on the propagation direction. At moderate and high shear strains, all S-waves are polarized nearly horizontally. Downwelling flow produces Sdiff, ScS, and SKKS fast polarization directions and birefringence that vary gradually as a function of the back-azimuth from nearly parallel to inclined by up to 70° to CMB and from null to ∼5%. Change in the flow to shear parallel to the CMB results in dispersion of the CPO, weakening of the anisotropy, and strong azimuthal variation of the S-wave splitting

We perform the first study of the properties of the Larmor electric field (LEF) in collisionless asymmetric magnetic reconnection in the presence of an out-of-plane (guide) magnetic field for different sets of representative upstream parameters at Earth’s dayside magnetopause with an ion temperature greater than the electron temperature (the ion-to-electron temperature ratio fixed at 2) using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. We show that the LEF does persist in the presence of a guide field. We study how the LEF thickness and strength change as a function of guide field and the magnetospheric temperature and reconnecting magnetic field strength. We find that the thickness of the LEF structure decreases, while its magnitude increases when a guide field is added to the reconnecting magnetic field. The added guide field makes the Larmor radius smaller, so the scaling with the magnetospheric ion Larmor radius is similar to that reported for the case without a guide field. Note, however, that the physics causing the LEF is not well understood, so future work in other parameter regimes is needed to fully predict the LEF for arbitrary conditions. We also find that a previously reported upstream electron temperatureanisotropy arises in the vicinity of the LEF region both with and without a guide field. We argue that the generation of the anisotropy is linked to the existence of the LEF. The LEF can be used in combination with the electron temperatureanisotropy as a signature to effectively identify dayside reconnection sites in observations.

We perform the first study of the properties of the Larmor electric field (LEF) in collisionless asymmetric magnetic reconnection in the presence of an out-of-plane (guide) magnetic field for different sets of representative upstream parameters at Earth’s dayside magnetopause with an ion temperature greater than the electron temperature (the ion-to-electron temperature ratio fixed at 2) using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. We show that the LEF does persist in the presence of a guide field. We study how the LEF thickness and strength change as a function of guide field and the magnetospheric temperature and reconnecting magnetic field strength. We find that the thickness of the LEF structure decreases, while its magnitude increases when a guide field is added to the reconnecting magnetic field. The added guide field makes the Larmor radius smaller, so the scaling with the magnetospheric ion Larmor radius is similar to that reported for the case without a guide field. Note, however, that the physics causing the LEF is not well understood, so future work in other parameter regimes is needed to fully predict the LEF for arbitrary conditions. We also find that a previously reported upstream electron temperatureanisotropy arises in the vicinity of the LEF region both with and without a guide field. We argue that the generation of the anisotropy is linked to the existence of the LEF. The LEF can be used in combination with the electron temperatureanisotropy as a signature to effectively identify dayside reconnection sites in observations.

Growth anisotropies of bulk high temperature superconductors (HTSCs) fabricated by a top-seeded melt texture growth process, that is, different pinning effect in the growth sectors (GSs) and growth sector boundaries (GSBs), possess effect on the macro flux trapping and levitation performance of bulk HTSCs. Previous work (Physics Procedia, 36 (2012) 1043) has found that the bulk HTSC array with aligned GSB pattern (AGSBP) exhibits better capability for levitation and suppression of levitation force decay above a permanent magnet guideway (PMG) compared with misaligned GSB pattern (MGSBP). In this paper, we further examine this growth anisotropy effect on the maglev performance of a double-layer bulk HTSC. In contrast to reported trapped flux cases (Supercond. Sci. Technol. 19 (2006) S466), the two superposed bulk HTSCs with same AGSBP with PMG are found to show better maglev performance. These series of results are helpful and support a new way for the performance optimization of present HTS maglev systems.

Measurements of CMBanisotropy and, more recently, polarization have played a very important role in allowing precise determination of various parameters of the `standard' cosmological model. The expectation of the paradigm of inflation and the generic prediction of the simplest realization of inflationary scenario in the ...

In this work, we study the deformation behavior of Mg-4 wt pct Li in uniaxial tension as a function of temperature and loading direction. Standard tensile tests were performed at temperatures in the range of 293 K (20 °C) ≤ T ≤ 473 K (200 °C) and in two in-plane directions: the extrusion and the transverse. We find that while the in-plane plastic anisotropy (PA) decreases with temperature, the anisotropy in failure strain and texture development increases. To uncover the temperature dependence in the critical stresses for slip and in the amounts of slip and twinning systems mediating deformation, we employ the elastic-plastic self-consistent polycrystal plasticity model with a thermally activated dislocation density based hardening law for activating slip with individual crystals. We demonstrate that the model, with a single set of intrinsic material parameters, achieves good agreement with the stress-strain curves, deformation textures, and intragranular misorientation axis analysis for all test directions and temperatures. With the model, we show that at all temperatures the in-plane tensile behavior is driven primarily by analysis explains that the in-plane PA decreases and failure strains increase with temperature as a result of a significant reduction in the activation stress for pyramidal multiple types of < a rangle and < {c + a} rangle slip. The results also show that because of the strong initial texture, in-plane texture development is anisotropic since prismatic slip dominates the deformation in one test, although it is not the easiest slip mode, and basal slip in the other. These findings reveal the relationship between the temperature-sensitive thresholds needed to activate crystallographic slip and the development of texture and macroscopic PA.

The two fundamental assumptions of the standard cosmological model - that the initial fluctuations are statistically isotropic and Gaussian - are rigorously tested using maps of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy from the Planck satellite. Deviations from isotropy have been found and demonstrated to be robust against component separation algorithm, mask choice and frequency dependence. Many of these anomalies were previously observed in the WMAP data, and are now confirmed at similar levels of significance (about 3 sigma). However, we find little evidence for non-Gaussianity, with the exception of a few statistical signatures that seem to be associated with specific anomalies. In particular, we find that the quadrupole-octopole alignment is also connected to a low observed variance of the CMB signal. A power asymmetry is now found to persist to scales corresponding to about l=600, and can be described in the low-l regime by a phenomenological dipole modulation model. However, any primordial powe...

If the universe is open, scales larger than the curvature scale may be probed by observation of large-angle fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). We consider primordial adiabatic perturbations and discuss power spectra that are power laws in volume, wavelength, and eigenvalue of the Laplace operator. Such spectra may have arisen if, for example, the universe underwent a period of `frustated' inflation. The resulting large-angle anisotropies of the CMB are computed. The amplitude generally increases as Omega is decreased but decreases as h is increased. Interestingly enough, for all three Ansaetze, anisotropies on angular scales larger than the curvature scale are suppressed relative to the anisotropies on scales smaller than the curvature scale, but cosmic variance makes discrimination between various models difficult. Models with 0.2 approximately less than Omega h approximately less than 0.3 appear compatible with CMB fluctuations detected by Cosmic Background Explorer Satellite (COBE) and the Tenerife experiment and with the amplitude and spectrum of fluctuations of galaxy counts in the APM, CfA, and 1.2 Jy IRAS surveys. COBE normalization for these models yields sigma(sub 8) approximately = 0.5 - 0.7. Models with smaller values of Omega h when normalized to COBE require bias factors in excess of 2 to be compatible with the observed galaxy counts on the 8/h Mpc scale. Requiring that the age of the universe exceed 10 Gyr implies that Omega approximately greater than 0.25, while requiring that from the last-scattering term in the Sachs-Wolfe formula, large-angle anisotropies come primarily from the decay of potential fluctuations at z approximately less than 1/Omega. Thus, if the universe is open, COBE has been detecting temperature fluctuations produced at moderate redshift rather than at z approximately 1300.

Spectral distortions of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) offer the possibility of probing processes which occurred during the evolution of our Universe going back up to Z≅ 10{sup 7}. Unfortunately all the attempts so far carried out for detecting distortions failed. All of them were based on comparisons among absolute measurements of the CMBtemperature at different frequencies. We suggest a different approach: measurements of the frequency derivative of the CMBtemperature over large frequency intervals instead of observations of the absolute temperature at few, well separated, frequencies as frequently done in the past, and, direct measurements of the foregrounds which hinder observations, at the same site and with the same radiometer prepared for the search of CMB distortions. We discuss therefore the perspectives of new observations in the next years from the ground, at very special sites, or in space as independent missions or part of other CMB projects.

The double adiabatic expansion of the nearly collisionless solar wind plasma creates conditions for the firehose instability to develop and efficiently prevent the further increase of the plasma temperature in the direction parallel to the interplanetary magnetic field. The conditions imposed by the firehose instability have been extensively studied using idealized approaches that ignore the mutual effects of electrons and protons. Recently, more realistic approaches have been proposed that take into account the interplay between electrons and protons, unveiling new regimes of the parallel oscillatory modes. However, for oblique wave propagation the instability develops distinct branches that grow much faster and may therefore be more efficient than the parallel firehose instability in constraining the temperatureanisotropy of the plasma particles. This paper reports for the first time on the effects of electron plasma properties on the oblique proton firehose (PFH) instability and provides a comprehensive vision of the entire unstable wave-vector spectrum, unifying the proton and the smaller electron scales. The plasma β and temperatureanisotropy regimes considered here are specific for the solar wind and magnetospheric conditions, and enable the electrons and protons to interact via the excited electromagnetic fluctuations. For the selected parameters, simultaneous electron and PFH instabilities can be observed with a dispersion spectrum of the electron firehose (EFH) extending toward the proton scales. Growth rates of the PFH instability are markedly boosted by the anisotropic electrons, especially in the oblique direction where the EFH growth rates are orders of magnitude higher.

Ti6Al4V sheets are usually difficult-to-form at room temperature as a consequence of their strong basal texture and hcp crystal lattice. The heating of the alloy below the beta transus temperature is recognized to enhance its formability, reducing the flow stress and increasing the ductility. However, the influence of the sheet anisotropy on the material failure hasn't been studied yet. To this aim, the paper presents the anisotropy influence on the failure characteristics of Ti6Al4V titanium alloy sheets making use of tensile tests carried out at room temperature and 600°C on smooth, notched and shear samples in order to have various stress states. The fracture strain is measured and the effect of the sample orientation and stress state is identified. To determine the actual stress state for each sample geometry, a numerical model is set up and calibrated using elasto-plastic data from uni-axial tensile tests on smooth samples. Finally, the fracture surfaces are observed through SEM analysis to explain the failure characteristics.

The double adiabatic expansion of the nearly collisionless solar wind plasma creates conditions for the firehose instability to develop and efficiently prevent the further increase of the plasma temperature in the direction parallel to the interplanetary magnetic field. The conditions imposed by the firehose instability have been extensively studied using idealized approaches that ignore the mutual effects of electrons and protons. Recently, more realistic approaches have been proposed that take into account the interplay between electrons and protons,? unveiling new regimes of the parallel oscillatory modes. However, for oblique wave propagation the instability develops distinct branches that grow much faster and may therefore be more efficient than the parallel firehose instability in constraining the temperatureanisotropy of the plasma particles. This paper reports for the first time on the effects of electron plasma properties on the oblique proton firehose (PFH) instability and provides a comprehensive vision of the entire unstable wave-vector spectrum, unifying the proton and the smaller electron scales. The plasma ß and temperatureanisotropy regimes considered here are specific for the solar wind and magnetospheric conditions, and enable the electrons and protons to interact via the excited electromagnetic fluctuations. For the selected parameters, simultaneous electron and PFH instabilities can be observed with a dispersion spectrum of the electron firehose (EFH) extending toward the proton scales. Growth rates of the PFH instability are markedly boosted by the anisotropic electrons, especially in the oblique direction where the EFH growth rates are orders of magnitude higher.

The rich data from the measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) have played a key role to establish the ΛCDM cosmology. The WMAP results combined with Type Ia Supernova and BAO constrain not only the standard cosmological parameters to a few percent level. The combination of the data such as WMAP, SPT and H 0 started constraining such as the cosmic inflation r ν <0.38, and the equation of the dark energy w=-1.087 ± 0.096. The current experimental efforts are focused to measure the CMB B-mode polarization to probe deeper to 'beyond standard model' parameters from the sky. The upcoming ground-base and balloon-borne experiments are designed for r∼0.01. This sensitivity with an arcmin scale angular resolution is also well within the detection of the lensing B-mode. I review the recent development and the prospect from the upcoming CMB experiments. (author)

A detection of B-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies would confirm the presence of a primordial gravitational wave background (GWB). In the inflation paradigm, this would be an unprecedented probe of the energy scale of inflation as it is directly proportional to the power spectrum of the GWB. However, similar tensor perturbations can be produced by the matter fields present during inflation, breaking the simple relationship between energy scale and the tensor-to-scalar ratio r . It is therefore important to find ways of distinguishing between the generation mechanisms of the GWB. Without doing a full model selection, we analyze the detectability of a new axion-S U (2 ) gauge field model by calculating the signal-to-noise ratio of future CMB and interferometer observations sensitive to the chirality of the tensor spectrum. We forecast the detectability of the resulting CMBtemperature and B-mode (TB) or E-mode and B-mode (EB) cross-correlation by the LiteBIRD satellite, considering the effects of residual foregrounds, gravitational lensing, and assess the ability of such an experiment to jointly detect primordial TB and EB spectra and self-calibrate its polarimeter. We find that LiteBIRD will be able to detect the chiral signal for r*>0.03 , with r* denoting the tensor-to-scalar ratio at the peak scale, and that the maximum signal-to-noise ratio for r*advanced stage of a LISA-like mission, which is designed to be sensitive to the intensity and polarization of the GWB. We find that such experiments would complement CMB observations as they would be able to detect the chirality of the GWB with high significance on scales inaccessible to the CMB. We conclude that CMB two-point statistics are limited in their ability to distinguish this model from a conventional vacuum fluctuation model of GWB generation, due to the fundamental limits on their sensitivity to parity violation. In order to test the predictions of such a model as

Cosmic strings formed during inflation are expected to be either diluted over super-Hubble distances, i.e., invisible today, or to have crossed our past light cone very recently. We discuss the latter situation in which a few strings imprint their signature in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) Anisotropies after recombination. Being almost frozen in the Hubble flow, these strings are quasi static and evade almost all of the previously derived constraints on their tension while being able to source large scale anisotropies in the CMB sky. Using a local variance estimator on thousand of numerically simulated Nambu-Goto all sky maps, we compute the expected signal and show that it can mimic a dipole modulation at large angular scales while being negligible at small angles. Interestingly, such a scenario generically produces one cold spot from the thawing of a cosmic string loop. Mixed with anisotropies of inflationary origin, we find that a few strings of tension GU = O(1) × 10{sup −6} match the amplitude of the dipole modulation reported in the Planck satellite measurements and could be at the origin of other large scale anomalies.

Full Text Available Temperatureanisotropies may be encountered in space plasmas when there is a preferred direction, for instance, a strong magnetic or electric field. In this paper, we study how ion temperatureanisotropy can affect the threshold conditions of a shear-modified current driven electrostatic ion-acoustic (CDEIA instability. In particular, this communication focuses on instabilities in the context of topside auroral F-region situations and in the limit where finite Larmor radius corrections are small. We derived a new fluid-like expression for the critical drift which depends explicitly on ion anisotropy. More importantly, for ion to electron temperature ratios typical of F-region, solutions of the kinetic dispersion relation show that ion temperatureanisotropy may significantly lower the drift threshold required for instability. In some cases, a perpendicular to parallel ion temperature ratio of 2 and may reduce the relative drift required for the onset of instability by a factor of approximately 30, assuming the ion-acoustic speed of the medium remains constant. Therefore, the ion temperatureanisotropy should be considered in future studies of ion-acoustic waves and instabilities in the high-latitude ionospheric F-region.

We propose a power filter Cp for linear reconstruction of the CMB signal from one-dimensional scans of observational maps. This Gp filter preserves the power spectrum of the CMB signal in contrast to the Wiener filter which diminishes the power spectrum of the reconstructed CMB signal. We demonst...

The effect of our Galaxy's motion through the Cosmic Microwave Background rest frame, which aberrates and Doppler shifts incoming photons measured by current CMB experiments, has been shown to produce mode-mixing in the multipole space temperature coefficients. However, multipole space determinations are subject to many difficulties, and a real-space analysis can provide a straightforward alternative. In this work we describe a numerical method for removing Lorentz- boost effects from real-space temperature maps. We show that to deboost a map so that one can accurately extract the temperature power spectrum requires calculating the boost kernel at a finer pixelization than one might naively expect. In idealized cases that allow for easy comparison to analytic results, we have confirmed that there is indeed mode mixing among the spherical harmonic coefficients of the temperature. We find that using a boost kernel calculated at Nside=8192 leads to a 1% bias in the binned boosted power spectrum at l~2000, while ...

The magnetic anisotropy energy at the interface (IMAE) of Co films deposited on the Pd(111) surface are determined in the framework of a self-consistent, real-space tight-binding method at zero temperature. Significant spin moments are induced at the Pd atoms at the interface which have an important influence on the observed reorientation transitions as a function of Co film thickness. Film-substrate hybridizations are therefore crucial for the magneto-anisotropic behaviour of thin transition-metal films deposited on metallic non-magnetic substrates. Furthermore, using a real-space recursive expansion of the local Green function and within the virtual-crystal approximation we calculate the magnetization curves and the Curie temperature T C for free-standing Fe films

We obtain predictions for cosmic microwave background anisotropies at angular scales near 1 deg in the context of cold dark matter models with a nonzero cosmological constant, normalized to the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) Differential Microwave Radiometer (DMR) detection. The results are compared to those computed in the matter-dominated models. We show that the coherence length of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropy is almost insensitive to cosmological parameters, and the rms amplitude of the anisotropy increases moderately with decreasing total matter density, while being most sensitive to the baryon abundance. We apply these results in the statistical analysis of the published data from the UCSB South Pole (SP) experiment (Gaier et al. 1992; Schuster et al. 1993). We reject most of the Cold Dark Matter (CDM)-Lambda models at the 95% confidence level when both SP scans are simulated together (although the combined data set renders less stringent limits than the Gaier et al. data alone). However, the Schuster et al. data considered alone as well as the results of some other recent experiments (MAX, MSAM, Saskatoon), suggest that typical temperature fluctuations on degree scales may be larger than is indicated by the Gaier et al. scan. If so, CDM-Lambda models may indeed provide, from a point of view of CMBanisotropies, an acceptable alternative to flat CDM models.

This paper presents the Planck 2013 likelihood, a complete statistical description of the two-point correlation function of the CMBtemperature fluctuations that accounts for all known relevant uncertainties, both instrumental and astrophysical in nature. We use this likelihood to derive our best...

In this paper the authors report on several important properties of the high t c cuprates. Firstly, the authors have developed a method for evaluating the electron-phonon coupling strength λ using an analysis of the heat capacity data. The authors estimate λ to be about 2.0 for La-Sr-Cu-O, which indicates that phonons are important but are not sufficient to explain the measured T c . Secondly, the authors have demonstrated that these materials exhibit gap anisotropy and multigap structure (the latter in the Re-Ba-Cu-O materials) which is responsible for the experimental difficulties in analyzing tunnelling and infrared data. Finally the authors have explained the anomalous results on the Pr substituted Y-Ba-Cu-O by its effects on the two dimensional Cu-O band in the framework of a two band multigap structure

Highlights: • The single-layer bulk HTSC with AGSBP obtains better levitation performance than that of MGSBP. • The double-layer bulk with AGSBP obtains better levitation performance than that of MGSBP too. • The double-layer bulk finding is contrast to MGSBP if pursuing high trapped field. • The optimization is highlighted by simple and easy operation, thus economical in the practice. -- Abstract: Growth anisotropies of bulk high temperature superconductors (HTSCs) fabricated by a top-seeded melt texture growth process, that is, different pinning effect in the growth sectors (GSs) and growth sector boundaries (GSBs), possess effect on the macro flux trapping and levitation performance of bulk HTSCs. Previous work (Physics Procedia, 36 (2012) 1043) has found that the bulk HTSC array with aligned GSB pattern (AGSBP) exhibits better capability for levitation and suppression of levitation force decay above a permanent magnet guideway (PMG) compared with misaligned GSB pattern (MGSBP). In this paper, we further examine this growth anisotropy effect on the maglev performance of a double-layer bulk HTSC. In contrast to reported trapped flux cases (Supercond. Sci. Technol. 19 (2006) S466), the two superposed bulk HTSCs with same AGSBP with PMG are found to show better maglev performance. These series of results are helpful and support a new way for the performance optimization of present HTS maglev systems

Highlights: • The single-layer bulk HTSC with AGSBP obtains better levitation performance than that of MGSBP. • The double-layer bulk with AGSBP obtains better levitation performance than that of MGSBP too. • The double-layer bulk finding is contrast to MGSBP if pursuing high trapped field. • The optimization is highlighted by simple and easy operation, thus economical in the practice. -- Abstract: Growth anisotropies of bulk high temperature superconductors (HTSCs) fabricated by a top-seeded melt texture growth process, that is, different pinning effect in the growth sectors (GSs) and growth sector boundaries (GSBs), possess effect on the macro flux trapping and levitation performance of bulk HTSCs. Previous work (Physics Procedia, 36 (2012) 1043) has found that the bulk HTSC array with aligned GSB pattern (AGSBP) exhibits better capability for levitation and suppression of levitation force decay above a permanent magnet guideway (PMG) compared with misaligned GSB pattern (MGSBP). In this paper, we further examine this growth anisotropy effect on the maglev performance of a double-layer bulk HTSC. In contrast to reported trapped flux cases (Supercond. Sci. Technol. 19 (2006) S466), the two superposed bulk HTSCs with same AGSBP with PMG are found to show better maglev performance. These series of results are helpful and support a new way for the performance optimization of present HTS maglev systems.

Room-temperature superparamagnetism due to a large magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) of a single atom magnet has always been a prerequisite for nanoscale magnetic devices. Realization of two dimensional (2D) materials such as single-layer (SL) MoS2, has provided new platforms for exploring magnetic effects, which is important for both fundamental research and for industrial applications. Here, we use density functional theory (DFT) to show that the antisite defect (Mo S ) in SL MoS2 is magnetic in nature with a magnetic moment μ of ∼2 μB and, remarkably, exhibits an exceptionally large atomic scale MAE =\\varepsilon\\parallel-\\varepsilon\\perp of ∼500 meV. Our calculations reveal that this giant anisotropy is the joint effect of strong crystal field and significant spin–orbit coupling (SOC). In addition, the magnetic moment μ can be tuned between 1 μB and 3 μB by varying the Fermi energy \\varepsilonF , which can be achieved either by changing the gate voltage or by chemical doping. We also show that MAE can be raised to ∼1 eV with n-type doping of the MoS2:Mo S sample. Our systematic investigations deepen our understanding of spin-related phenomena in SL MoS2 and could provide a route to nanoscale spintronic devices.

We report on a measurement of the angular spectrum of the CMB between l 100 and l 400 made at 144 GHz from Cerro Toco in the Chilean altiplano. When the new data are combined with previous data at 30 and 40 GHz, taken with the same instrument observing the same section of sky, we find: 1) a rise in the angular spectrum to a maximum with δ Tl 85 μ K at l 200 and a fall at l>300, thereby localizing the peak near l 200; and 2) that the anisotropy at l 200 has the spectrum of the CMB. Cosmological implications are discussed.

We present a map and an angular power spectrum of the anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) from the first flight of MAXIMA. MAXIMA is a balloon-borne experiment with an array of 16 bolometric photometers operated at 100 mK. MAXIMA observed a 124 deg{sup 2} region of the sky with 10' resolution at frequencies of 150, 240 and 410 GHz. The data were calibrated using in-flight measurements of the CMB dipole anisotropy. A map of the CMBanisotropy was produced from three 150 and one 240 GHz photometer without need for foreground subtractions.

The lack of power of large-angle CMBanisotropies is known to increase its statistical significance at higher Galactic latitudes, where a string-inspired pre-inflationary scale Δ can also be detected. Considering the Planck 2015 data, and relying largely on a Bayesian approach, we show that the effect is mostly driven by the even - ℓ harmonic multipoles with ℓ ≲ 20, which appear sizably suppressed in a way that is robust with respect to Galactic masking, along with the corresponding detections of Δ. On the other hand, the first odd - ℓ multipoles are only suppressed at high Galactic latitudes. We investigate this behavior in different sky masks, constraining Δ through even and odd multipoles, and we elaborate on possible implications. We include low- ℓ polarization data which, despite being noise-limited, help in attaining confidence levels of about 3 σ in the detection of Δ. We also show by direct forecasts that a future all-sky E-mode cosmic-variance-limited polarization survey may push the constraining power for Δ beyond 5 σ.

During helium beam fuelling experiments in JET, distinctive anisotropic features have been observed in the velocity distribution function describing both fast and thermal alpha particle populations. During the initial fuelling phase the central helium ion temperature observed perpendicular to the magnetic field is higher than the central electron temperature, while the central helium ion temperature observed parallel to the magnetic field is lower than or equal to the central electron temperature. In order to verify temperature measurements of both perpendicular and parallel lines of sight, other independent methods of deducing the ion temperature are investigated: deuterium ion temperature, deuterium density, comparison with neutron rates and profiles (influence of a possible metastable population of helium). 6 refs., 7 figs.

We search for the presence of cosmological neutrino background (CNB) anisotropies in recent Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) five-year data using their signature imprinted on modifications to the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy power spectrum. By parameterizing the neutrino background anisotropies with the speed viscosity parameter c vis , we find that the WMAP five-year data alone provide only a weak indication for CNB anisotropies with c vis 2 >0.06 at the 95% confidence level. When we combine CMBanisotropy data with measurements of galaxy clustering, the SN-Ia Hubble diagram, and other cosmological information, the detection increases to c vis 2 >0.16 at the same 95% confidence level. Future data from Planck, combined with a weak lensing survey such as the one expected with DUNE from space, will be able to measure the CNB anisotropy parameter at about 10% accuracy. We discuss the degeneracy between neutrino background anisotropies and other cosmological parameters such as the number of effective neutrinos species and the dark energy equation of state

The preservation of enzyme activity and protein binding capacity upon protein adsorption at solid interfaces is important for biotechnological and medical applications. Because these properties are partly related to the protein flexibility and mobility, we have studied the internal dynamics and the whole-body reorientational rates of two enzymes, staphylococcal nuclease (SNase) and hen egg white lysozyme, over the temperature range of 20–80°C when the proteins are adsorbed at the silica/water interface and, for comparison, when they are dissolved in buffer. The data were obtained using a combination of two experimental techniques, total internal reflection fluorescence spectroscopy and time-resolved fluorescence anisotropy measurements in the frequency domain, with the protein Trp residues as intrinsic fluorescence probes. It has been found that the internal dynamics and the whole-body rotation of SNase and lysozyme are markedly reduced upon adsorption over large temperature ranges. At elevated temperatures, both protein molecules appear completely immobilized and the fractional amplitudes for the whole-body rotation, which are related to the order parameter for the local rotational freedom of the Trp residues, remain constant and do not approach zero. This behavior indicates that the angular range of the Trp reorientation within the adsorbed proteins is largely restricted even at high temperatures, in contrast to that of the dissolved proteins. The results of this study thus provide a deeper understanding of protein activity at solid surfaces. PMID:12668461

Full Text Available In plasmas with strongly anisotropic distribution functions (T_{∥b}/T_{⊥b}≪1 a Harris-like collective instability may develop if there is sufficient coupling between the transverse and longitudinal degrees of freedom. Such anisotropies develop naturally in accelerators and may lead to a deterioration of beam quality. This paper extends previous numerical studies [E. A. Startsev, R. C. Davidson, and H. Qin, Phys. Plasmas 9, 3138 (2002] of the stability properties of intense non-neutral charged particle beams with large temperatureanisotropy (T_{⊥b}≫T_{∥b} to allow for nonaxisymmetric perturbations with ∂/∂θ≠0. The most unstable modes are identified, and their eigenfrequencies, radial mode structure, and nonlinear dynamics are determined. The simulation results clearly show that moderately intense beams with s_{b}=ω[over ^]_{pb}^{2}/2γ_{b}^{2}ω_{β⊥}^{2}≳0.5 are linearly unstable to short-wavelength perturbations with k_{z}^{2}r_{b}^{2}≳1, provided the ratio of longitudinal and transverse temperatures is smaller than some threshold value. Here, ω[over ^]_{pb}^{2}=4πn[over ^]_{b}e_{b}^{2}/γ_{b}m_{b} is the relativistic plasma frequency squared, and ω_{β⊥} is the betatron frequency associated with the applied smooth-focusing field. A theoretical model is developed based on the Vlasov-Maxwell equations which describes the essential features of the linear stages of instability. Both the simulations and the analytical theory predict that the dipole mode (azimuthal mode number m=1 is the most unstable mode. In the nonlinear stage, tails develop in the longitudinal momentum distribution function, and the kinetic instability saturates due to resonant wave-particle interactions.

Prior to recombination, Silk damping causes the dissipation of energy from acoustic waves into the monopole of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), resulting in spectral distortions. These can be used to probe the primordial scalar power spectrum on smaller scales than it is possible with CMBanisotropies. An enhancement of power on these scales is nevertheless required for the resulting distortions to be detectable by future experiments like PIXIE. In this paper, we examine all 49 single-field inflation models listed by Martin et al. in the Encyclopaedia Inflationaris [1] and find that only one of these may lead to a detectable level of distortions in a tuned region of its parameter space, namely the original hybrid model. Three effective multi-field scenarios are also studied: with softly and suddenly turning trajectories, and with a mild waterfall trajectory. Softly turning trajectories do not induce distortions at any detectable level, whereas a sudden turn in the field space or a mild waterfall trajectory predicts a peak (plus damped oscillations in the sudden turn case) in the scalar power spectrum, which can lead to an observable amount of CMB distortions. Finally, another scenario leading to potentially detectable distortions involves a curvaton whose blue spectrum is subdominant on CMB angular scales and overtakes the inflaton spectrum on smaller scales. In this case however, we show that the bounds from ultra compact minihaloes are not satisfied. Expectations for an ultimate PRISM-class experiment characterized by an improvement in sensitivity by a factor of ten are discussed for some models

Prior to recombination, Silk damping causes the dissipation of energy from acoustic waves into the monopole of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), resulting in spectral distortions. These can be used to probe the primordial scalar power spectrum on smaller scales than it is possible with CMBanisotropies. An enhancement of power on these scales is nevertheless required for the resulting distortions to be detectable by future experiments like PIXIE. In this paper, we examine all 49 single-field inflation models listed by Martin et al. in the Encyclopaedia Inflationaris [1] and find that only one of these may lead to a detectable level of distortions in a tuned region of its parameter space, namely the original hybrid model. Three effective multi-field scenarios are also studied: with softly and suddenly turning trajectories, and with a mild waterfall trajectory. Softly turning trajectories do not induce distortions at any detectable level, whereas a sudden turn in the field space or a mild waterfall trajectory predicts a peak (plus damped oscillations in the sudden turn case) in the scalar power spectrum, which can lead to an observable amount of CMB distortions. Finally, another scenario leading to potentially detectable distortions involves a curvaton whose blue spectrum is subdominant on CMB angular scales and overtakes the inflaton spectrum on smaller scales. In this case however, we show that the bounds from ultra compact minihaloes are not satisfied. Expectations for an ultimate PRISM-class experiment characterized by an improvement in sensitivity by a factor of ten are discussed for some models.

We question the global universe isotropy by probing the alignment of local structures in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. The original method proposed relies on a steerable wavelet decomposition of the CMB signal on the sphere. The analysis of the first-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe data identifies a mean preferred plane with a normal direction close to the CMB dipole axis, and a mean preferred direction in this plane, very close to the ecliptic poles axis. Previous statistical anisotropy results are thereby synthesized, but further analyses are still required to establish their origin.

Although the Cosmic Microwave Background agrees with a perfect blackbody spectrum within the current experimental limits, it is expected to exhibit certain spectral distortions with known spectral properties. We propose a new method, Frequency Space Differential (FSD) to measure the spectral distortions in the CMB spectrum by using the inter-frequency differences of the brightness temperature. The difference between the observed CMBtemperature at different frequencies must agree with the frequency derivative of the blackbody spectrum, in the absence of any distortion. However, in the presence of spectral distortions, the measured inter-frequency differences would also exhibit deviations from blackbody which can be modeled for known sources of spectral distortions like y & μ. Our technique uses FSD information for the CMB blackbody, y, μ or any other sources of spectral distortions to model the observed signal. Successful application of this method in future CMB missions can provide an alternative method to extract spectral distortion signals and can potentially make it feasible to measure spectral distortions without an internal blackbody calibrator.

Making use of the stress induced magnetic anisotropy in some iron-rich FeCuNbSiB nanocrystalline materials we studied the thermal dependence of their magnetostriction which becomes zero below the Curie temperature. The choice of a suitable composition and annealing temperature results in materials...... with zero magnetostriction at room temperature. Due to the low magnetostriction these materials have very promising fluxgate properties which were studied as well...

The digital program TIMTEM calculates twodimensional, nonlinear temperature fields of reactor components of complex structure; inhomogeneity and anisotropy are taken into account. Systems consisting of different materials and therefore having different temperature- and/or time-dependent material characteristics are allowed. Various local, time- and/or temperature-dependent boundary conditions can be considered, too, which may be locally different from each other or can be interconnected. (orig.) [de

The quest for materials hosting topologically protected skyrmionic spin textures continues to be fueled by the promise of novel devices. Although many materials have demonstrated the existence of such spin textures, major challenges remain to be addressed before devices based on magnetic skyrmions can be realized. For example, being able to create and manipulate skyrmionic spin textures at room temperature is of great importance for further technological applications because they can adapt to various external stimuli acting as information carriers in spintronic devices. Here, the first observation of skyrmionic magnetic bubbles with variable topological spin textures formed at room temperature in a frustrated kagome Fe3 Sn2 magnet with uniaxial magnetic anisotropy is reported. The magnetization dynamics are investigated using in situ Lorentz transmission electron microscopy, revealing that the transformation between different magnetic bubbles and domains is via the motion of Bloch lines driven by an applied external magnetic field. These results demonstrate that Fe3 Sn2 facilitates a unique magnetic control of topological spin textures at room temperature, making it a promising candidate for further skyrmion-based spintronic devices.

Results from a search for anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) are presented from the third flight of the Millimeter-wave Anisotropy experiment. The CMB observation occurred over 1.37 hours and covered a 6.24 sq deg area of the sky where very little foreground emission is expected. Significant correlated structure is observed at 6 and 9/cm. At 12/cm we place an upper limit on the structure. The relative amplitudes at 6, 9, and 12/cm are consistent with a CMB spectrum. The spectrum of the structure is inconsistent with thermal emission from known forms of interstellar dust. Synchrotron and free-free emission would both require unusually flat spectral indices at cm wavelengths in order to account for the amplitude of the observed structure. Although known systematic errors are not expected to contribute significantly to any of the three optical channels, excess sidelobe contamination cannot be definitively ruled out. If all the structure is attributed to CMBanisotropy, a value of the weighted rms of the 6 and 9/cm channels of Delta T/T(CMB) = 4.7 +/- 0.8 x 10 exp -5 (+/- 1 sigma) was measured. If the CMBanisotropy is assumed to have a Gaussian autocorrelation function with a coherence angle of 25 arcmin, then the most probable value is Delta T/T(CMB) = 4.2 +1.7 or -1.1 x 10 exp -5, where the +/- refers to the 95 percent confidence limits.

The anomalous lack of large angle temperature correlations has been a surprising feature of the CMB since first observed by COBE-DMR and subsequently confirmed and strengthened by WMAP. This anomaly may point to the need for modifications of the standard model of cosmology or may show that our Universe is a rare statistical fluctuation within that model. Further observations of the temperature auto-correlation function will not elucidate the issue; sufficiently high precision statistical observations already exist. Instead, alternative probes are required. In this work we explore the expectations for forthcoming polarisation observations. We define a prescription to test the hypothesis that the large-angle CMBtemperature perturbations in our Universe represent a rare statistical fluctuation within the standard cosmological model. These tests are based on the temperature-Q Stokes parameter correlation. Unfortunately these tests cannot be expected to be definitive. However, we do show that if this TQ-correlati...

We present the final nine-year maps and basic results from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) mission. The full nine-year analysis of the time-ordered data provides updated characterizations and calibrations of the experiment. We also provide new nine-year full sky temperature maps that were processed to reduce the asymmetry of the effective beams. Temperature and polarization sky maps are examined to separate cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy from foreground emission, and both types of signals are analyzed in detail. We provide new point source catalogs as well as new diffuse and point source foreground masks. An updated template-removal process is used for cosmological analysis; new foreground fits are performed, and new foreground-reduced CMB maps are presented. We now implement an optimal C {sup –1} weighting to compute the temperature angular power spectrum. The WMAP mission has resulted in a highly constrained ΛCDM cosmological model with precise and accurate parameters in agreement with a host of other cosmological measurements. When WMAP data are combined with finer scale CMB, baryon acoustic oscillation, and Hubble constant measurements, we find that big bang nucleosynthesis is well supported and there is no compelling evidence for a non-standard number of neutrino species (N {sub eff} = 3.84 ± 0.40). The model fit also implies that the age of the universe is t {sub 0} = 13.772 ± 0.059 Gyr, and the fit Hubble constant is H {sub 0} = 69.32 ± 0.80 km s{sup –1} Mpc{sup –1}. Inflation is also supported: the fluctuations are adiabatic, with Gaussian random phases; the detection of a deviation of the scalar spectral index from unity, reported earlier by the WMAP team, now has high statistical significance (n{sub s} = 0.9608 ± 0.0080); and the universe is close to flat/Euclidean (Ω{sub k} = -0.0027{sup +0.0039}{sub -0.0038}). Overall, the WMAP mission has resulted in a reduction of the cosmological parameter volume by a factor

We present the final nine-year maps and basic results from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) mission. The full nine-year analysis of the time-ordered data provides updated characterizations and calibrations of the experiment. We also provide new nine-year full sky temperature maps that were processed to reduce the asymmetry of the effective beams. Temperature and polarization sky maps are examined to separate cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy from foreground emission, and both types of signals are analyzed in detail. We provide new point source catalogs as well as new diffuse and point source foreground masks. An updated template-removal process is used for cosmological analysis; new foreground fits are performed, and new foreground-reduced CMB maps are presented. We now implement an optimal C –1 weighting to compute the temperature angular power spectrum. The WMAP mission has resulted in a highly constrained ΛCDM cosmological model with precise and accurate parameters in agreement with a host of other cosmological measurements. When WMAP data are combined with finer scale CMB, baryon acoustic oscillation, and Hubble constant measurements, we find that big bang nucleosynthesis is well supported and there is no compelling evidence for a non-standard number of neutrino species (N eff = 3.84 ± 0.40). The model fit also implies that the age of the universe is t 0 = 13.772 ± 0.059 Gyr, and the fit Hubble constant is H 0 = 69.32 ± 0.80 km s –1 Mpc –1 . Inflation is also supported: the fluctuations are adiabatic, with Gaussian random phases; the detection of a deviation of the scalar spectral index from unity, reported earlier by the WMAP team, now has high statistical significance (n s = 0.9608 ± 0.0080); and the universe is close to flat/Euclidean (Ω k = -0.0027 +0.0039 -0.0038 ). Overall, the WMAP mission has resulted in a reduction of the cosmological parameter volume by a factor of 68,000 for the standard six-parameter ΛCDM model

The Mobile Anisotropy Telescope (MAT) has completed two observing seasons (1997 and 1998) in Chile from the Cerro Toco site. Although the primary goal of MAT was to measure anisotropy in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation, the chosen observation scheme also allowed daily viewing of the Galactic Plane. We present filtered maps at 30, 40 and 144 GHz of a region of the Galactic Plane which contains several millimeter-bright regions including the Carinae nebula and IRAS 11097-6102. We report the best fit brightness temperatures as well as the total flux densities in the MAT beams (0.9, 0.6 and 0.2 degrees FWHM) . The data are calibrated with respect to Jupiter whose flux is known to better than 8% in all frequency bands. This work was funded by the National Science Foundation and the Packard Foundation.

A self-consistent method is presented for comparing theoretical predictions of and observational upper limits on CMBanisotropy. New bounds on CDM cosmologies set by the UCSB South Pole experiment on the 1 deg angular scale are presented. An upper limit of 4.0 x 10 to the -5th is placed on the rms differential temperatureanisotropy to a 95 percent confidence level and a power of the test beta = 55 percent. A lower limit of about 0.6/b is placed on the density parameter of cold dark matter universes with greater than about 3 percent baryon abundance and a Hubble constant of 50 km/s/Mpc, where b is the bias factor, equal to unity only if light traces mass. 22 refs

Shock-induced spall in Cu is investigated with molecular dynamics simulations. We examine spallation in initially perfect crystals and defective solids with grain boundaries (columnar bicrystals), stacking faults or vacancies, as well as the effect of temperature and loading pulses. Spall in single crystal Cu is anisotropic, and defects and high temperature may reduce the spall strength. Taylor-wave (triangular shock-release wave) loading is explored in comparison with square wave shock loading.

Precision measurements of the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation, especially experiments seeking to detect the odd-parity "B-modes", have far-reaching implications for cosmology. To detect the B-modes generated during inflation the flux response and polarization angle of these experiments must be calibrated to exquisite precision. While suitable flux calibration sources abound, polarization angle calibrators are deficient in many respects. Man-made polarized sources are often not located in the antenna's far-field, have spectral properties that are radically different from the CMB's, are cumbersome to implement and may be inherently unstable over the (long) duration these searches require to detect the faint signature of the inflationary epoch. Astrophysical sources suffer from time, frequency and spatial variability, are not visible from all CMB observatories, and none are understood with sufficient accuracy to calibrate future CMB polarimeters seeking to probe inflationary energy scales of ~1000 TeV. CMB TB and EB modes, expected to identically vanish in the standard cosmological model, can be used to calibrate CMB polarimeters. By enforcing the observed EB and TB power spectra to be consistent with zero, CMB polarimeters can be calibrated to levels not possible with man-made or astrophysical sources. All of this can be accomplished without any loss of observing time using a calibration source which is spectrally identical to the CMB B-modes. The calibration procedure outlined here can be used for any CMB polarimeter.

Cosmic microwave background (CMB) full-sky temperature data show a hemispherical asymmetry in power nearly aligned with the Ecliptic. In real space, this anomaly can be quantified by the temperature variance in the Northern and Southern Ecliptic hemispheres, with the Northern hemisphere displaying an anomalously low variance while the Southern hemisphere appears unremarkable [consistent with expectations from the best-fitting theory, Lambda Cold Dark Matter (ΛCDM)]. While this is a well-established result in temperature, the low signal-to-noise ratio in current polarization data prevents a similar comparison. This will change with a proposed ground-based CMB experiment, CMB-S4. With that in mind, we generate realizations of polarization maps constrained by the temperature data and predict the distribution of the hemispherical variance in polarization considering two different sky coverage scenarios possible in CMB-S4: full Ecliptic north coverage and just the portion of the North that can be observed from a ground-based telescope at the high Chilean Atacama plateau. We find that even in the set of realizations constrained by the temperature data, the low Northern hemisphere variance observed in temperature is not expected in polarization. Therefore, observing an anomalously low variance in polarization would make the hypothesis that the temperature anomaly is simply a statistical fluke more unlikely and thus increase the motivation for physical explanations. We show, within ΛCDM, how variance measurements in both sky coverage scenarios are related. We find that the variance makes for a good statistic in cases where the sky coverage is limited, however, full northern coverage is still preferable.

Full Text Available Damping of primordial gravitational waves due to the anisotropic stress contribution owing to the cosmological neutrino background (CνB is investigated in the context of a radiation-to-matter dominated universe. Besides its inherent effects on the gravitational wave propagation, the inclusion of the CνB anisotropic stress into the dynamical equations also affects the tensor mode contribution to the anisotropy of the cosmological microwave background (CγB temperature. The mutual effects on the gravitational waves and on the CγB are obtained through a unified prescription for a radiation-to-matter dominated scenario. The results are confronted with some preliminary results for the radiation dominated scenario. Both scenarios are supported by a simplified analytical framework, in terms of a scale independent dynamical variable, kη, that relates cosmological scales, k, and the conformal time, η. The background relativistic (hot dark matter essentially works as an effective dispersive medium for the gravitational waves such that the damping effect is intensified for the universe evolving to the matter dominated era. Changes on the temperature variance owing to the inclusion of neutrino collision terms into the dynamical equations result in spectral features that ratify that the multipole expansion coefficients ClT’s die out for l~100.

Motivated by WMAP's confirmation of an anomalously low value of the quadrupole moment of the CMBtemperature fluctuations, we investigate the effects on the CMB of cutting off the primordial power spectrum P(k) at low wave numbers. This could arise, for example, from a break in the inflaton potential, a prior period of matter or radiation domination, or an oscillating scalar field which couples to the inflaton. We reanalyze the full WMAP parameter space supplemented by a low-k cutoff for P(k). The temperature correlations by themselves are better fit by a cutoff spectrum, but including the TE temperature-polarization spectrum reduces this preference to a 1.4 sigma effect. Inclusion of large scale structure data does not change the conclusion. If taken seriously, the low-k cutoff is correlated with optical depth so that reionization occurs even earlier than indicated by the WMAP analysis.

We present two-dimensional hybrid simulations of proton-cyclotron and mirror instabilities in a proton-alpha plasma with particle-in-cell ions and a neutralizing electron fluid. The instabilities are driven by the protons with temperature perpendicular to the background magnetic field larger than the parallel temperature. The alpha particles with initially isotropic temperature have a nonzero drift speed with respect to the protons. The minor ions are known to influence the relative effect of the proton-cyclotron and mirror instabilities. In this paper, we show that the mirror mode can dominate the power spectrum at the nonlinear stage even if its linear growth rate is significantly lower than that of the proton-cyclotron mode. The proton-cyclotron instability combined with the alpha-proton drift is a possible cause of the nonzero magnetic helicity observed in the solar wind for fluctuations propagating nearly parallel to the magnetic field. Our simulations generally confirm this concept but reveal a complex helicity spectrum that is not anticipated from the linear theory of the instability.

We describe the automated nondestructive assay (NDA) system installed at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL) Group CMB-8 uranium recovery facility. A random driver (RD) is used to measure the 235 U content of various solids while a uranium solution assay system (USAS) measures the 235 U or total uranium content of solutions over a concentration range of a few ppM to 400 g/l. Both instruments are interfaced to and controlled by a single minicomputer. The measurement principles, mechanical specifications, system software description, and operational instructions are described

The Planck satellite, along with several ground-based telescopes, has mapped the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at sufficient resolution and signal-to-noise so as to allow a detection of the subtle distortions due to the gravitational influence of the intervening matter distribution. A natural modeling approach is to write a Bayesian hierarchical model for the lensed CMB in terms of the unlensed CMB and the lensing potential. So far there has been no feasible algorithm for inferring the posterior distribution of the lensing potential from the lensed CMB map. We propose a solution that allows efficient Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling from the joint posterior of the lensing potential and the unlensed CMB map using the Hamiltonian Monte Carlo technique. The main conceptual step in the solution is a re-parameterization of CMB lensing in terms of the lensed CMB and the “inverse lensing” potential. We demonstrate a fast implementation on simulated data, including noise and a sky cut, that uses a further acceleration based on a very mild approximation of the inverse lensing potential. We find that the resulting Markov Chain has short correlation lengths and excellent convergence properties, making it promising for applications to high-resolution CMB data sets in the future.

Recently WMAP and BOOMERanG experiments have set stringent constraints on the polarization angle of photons propagating in an expanding universe: Δα = (−2.4±1.9)°. The polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation (CMB) is reviewed in the context of nonlinear electrodynamics (NLED). We compute the polarization angle of photons propagating in a cosmological background with planar symmetry. For this purpose, we use the Pagels-Tomboulis (PT) Lagrangian density describing NLED, which has the form L ∼ (X/Λ{sup 4}){sup δ−1} X, where X = ¼F{sub αβ}F{sup αβ}, and δ the parameter featuring the non-Maxwellian character of the PT nonlinear description of the electromagnetic interaction. After looking at the polarization components in the plane orthogonal to the (x)-direction of propagation of the CMB photons, the polarization angle is defined in terms of the eccentricity of the universe, a geometrical property whose evolution on cosmic time (from the last scattering surface to the present) is constrained by the strength of magnetic fields over extragalactic distances.

There exists various proposals to detect cosmic strings from Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) or 21 cm temperature maps. Current proposals do not aim to find the location of strings on sky maps, all of these approaches can be thought of as a statistic on a sky map. We propose a Bayesian interpretation of cosmic string detection and within that framework, we derive a connection between estimates of cosmic string locations and cosmic string tension G μ. We use this Bayesian framework to develop a machine learning framework for detecting strings from sky maps and outline how to implement this framework with neural networks. The neural network we trained was able to detect and locate cosmic strings on noiseless CMBtemperature map down to a string tension of G μ=5 ×10{sup −9} and when analyzing a CMBtemperature map that does not contain strings, the neural network gives a 0.95 probability that G μ≤2.3×10{sup −9}.

We present a demonstration of delensing the observed cosmic microwave background (CMB) B-mode polarization anisotropy. This process of reducing the gravitational-lensing generated B-mode component will become increasingly important for improving searches for the B modes produced by primordial gravitational waves. In this work, we delens B-mode maps constructed from multi-frequency SPTpol observations of a 90 deg$^2$ patch of sky by subtracting a B-mode template constructed from two inputs: SPTpol E-mode maps and a lensing potential map estimated from the $\\textit{Herschel}$ $500\\,\\mu m$ map of the CIB. We find that our delensing procedure reduces the measured B-mode power spectrum by 28% in the multipole range $300 < \\ell < 2300$; this is shown to be consistent with expectations from theory and simulations and to be robust against systematics. The null hypothesis of no delensing is rejected at $6.9 \\sigma$. Furthermore, we build and use a suite of realistic simulations to study the general properties of the delensing process and find that the delensing efficiency achieved in this work is limited primarily by the noise in the lensing potential map. We demonstrate the importance of including realistic experimental non-idealities in the delensing forecasts used to inform instrument and survey-strategy planning of upcoming lower-noise experiments, such as CMB-S4.

B-modes in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization is a smoking gun signature of the inflationary universe. To achieve better sensitivity to this faint signal, CMB polarization experiments aim to maximize the number of detector elements, resulting in a large focal plane receiver. Detector calibration of the polarization response becomes essential. It is extremely useful to be able to calibrate 'simultaneously' all detectors on the large focal plane. We developed a novel calibration system that rotates a large 'sparse' grid of metal wires, in front of and fully covering the field of view of the focal plane receiver. Polarized radiation is created via the reflection of ambient temperature from the wire surface. Since the detector has a finite beam size, the observed signal is smeared according to the beam property. The resulting smeared polarized radiation has a reasonable intensity (a few Kelvin or less) compared to the sky temperature ({approx}10 K observing condition). The system played a successful role for receiver calibration of QUIET, a CMB polarization experiment located in the Atacama desert in Chile. The successful performance revealed that this system is applicable to other experiments based on different technologies, e.g. TES bolometers.

B-modes in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization is a smoking gun signature of the inflationary universe. To achieve better sensitivity to this faint signal, CMB polarization experiments aim to maximize the number of detector elements, resulting in a large focal plane receiver. Detector calibration of the polarization response becomes essential. It is extremely useful to be able to calibrate 'simultaneously' all detectors on the large focal plane. We developed a novel calibration system that rotates a large 'sparse' grid of metal wires, in front of and fully covering the field of view of the focal plane receiver. Polarized radiation is created via the reflection of ambient temperature from the wire surface. Since the detector has a finite beam size, the observed signal is smeared according to the beam property. The resulting smeared polarized radiation has a reasonable intensity (a few Kelvin or less) compared to the sky temperature (∼10 K observing condition). The system played a successful role for receiver calibration of QUIET, a CMB polarization experiment located in the Atacama desert in Chile. The successful performance revealed that this system is applicable to other experiments based on different technologies, e.g. TES bolometers.

We present the final nine-year maps and basic results from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) mission. The full nine-year analysis of the time-ordered data provides updated characterizations and calibrations of the experiment. We also provide new nine-year full sky temperature maps that were processed to reduce the asymmetry of the effective beams. Temperature and polarization sky maps are examined to separate cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy from foreground emission, and both types of signals are analyzed in detail.We provide new point source catalogs as well as new diffuse and point source foreground masks. An updated template-removal process is used for cosmological analysis; new foreground fits are performed, and new foreground reduced are presented.We nowimplement an optimal C(exp -1)1 weighting to compute the temperature angular power spectrum. The WMAP mission has resulted in a highly constrained Lambda-CDM cosmological model with precise and accurate parameters in agreement with a host of other cosmological measurements. When WMAP data are combined with finer scale CMB, baryon acoustic oscillation, and Hubble constant measurements, we find that big bang nucleosynthesis is well supported and there is no compelling evidence for a non-standard number of neutrino species (N(sub eff) = 3.84 +/- 0.40). The model fit also implies that the age of the universe is (sub 0) = 13.772 +/- 0.059 Gyr, and the fit Hubble constant is H(sub 0) = 69.32 +/- 0.80 km/s/ Mpc. Inflation is also supported: the fluctuations are adiabatic, with Gaussian random phases; the detection of a deviation of the scalar spectral index from unity, reported earlier by the WMAP team, now has high statistical significance (n(sub s) = 0.9608+/-0.0080); and the universe is close to flat/Euclidean (Omega = -0.0027+0.0039/-0.0038). Overall, the WMAP mission has resulted in a reduction of the cosmological parameter volume by a factor of 68,000 for the standard six

We consider a Swiss Cheese model with a random arrangement of Lemaȋtre-Tolman-Bondi holes in ΛCDM cheese. We study two kinds of holes with radius r{sub b}=50 h{sup −1} Mpc, with either an underdense or an overdense centre, called the open and closed case, respectively. We calculate the effect of the holes on the temperature, angular diameter distance and, for the first time in Swiss Cheese models, shear of the CMB . We quantify the systematic shift of the mean and the statistical scatter, and calculate the power spectra. In the open case, the temperature power spectrum is three orders of magnitude below the linear ISW spectrum. It is sensitive to the details of the hole, in the closed case the amplitude is two orders of magnitude smaller. In contrast, the power spectra of the distance and shear are more robust, and agree with perturbation theory and previous Swiss Cheese results. We do not find a statistically significant mean shift in the sky average of the angular diameter distance, and obtain the 95% limit |Δ D{sub A}/ D-bar {sub A}|∼

The epoch of first star formation and the state of the intergalactic medium (IGM) at that time are not directly observable with current telescopes. The radiation from those early sources is now part of the cosmic infrared background (CIB) and, as these sources ionize the gas around them, the IGM plasma would produce faint temperatureanisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) via the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (TSZ) effect. While these TSZ anisotropies are too faint to be detected, we show that the cross-correlation of maps of source-subtracted CIB fluctuations from Euclid, with suitably constructed microwave maps at different frequencies, can probe the physical state of the gas during reionization and test/constrain models of the early CIB sources. We identify the frequency-combined, CMB-subtracted microwave maps from space- and ground-based instruments to show that they can be cross-correlated with the forthcoming all-sky Euclid CIB maps to detect the cross-power at scales ∼5'-60' with signal-to-noise ratios (S/Ns) of up to S/N ∼ 4-8 depending on the contribution to the Thomson optical depth during those pre-reionization epochs (Δτ ≅ 0.05) and the temperature of the IGM (up to ∼10 4 K). Such a measurement would offer a new window to explore the emergence and physical properties of these first light sources

We consider cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy in models with quintessence, taking into account isocurvature fluctuation. It is shown that, if the primordial fluctuation of the quintessence has a correlation with the adiabatic density fluctuations, the CMB angular power spectrum C(l) at low multipoles can be suppressed without affecting C(l) at high multipoles. A possible scenario for generating a correlated mixture of the quintessence and adiabatic fluctuations is also discussed.

We present the Planck likelihood, a complete statistical description of the two-point correlation function of the CMBtemperature fluctuations. We use this likelihood to derive the Planck CMB power spectrum over three decades in l, covering 2 = 50, we employ a correlated Gaussian likelihood approximation based on angular cross-spectra derived from the 100, 143 and 217 GHz channels. We validate our likelihood through an extensive suite of consistency tests, and assess the impact of residual foreground and instrumental uncertainties on cosmological parameters. We find good internal agreement among the high-l cross-spectra with residuals of a few uK^2 at l <= 1000. We compare our results with foreground-cleaned CMB maps, and with cross-spectra derived from the 70 GHz Planck map, and find broad agreement in terms of spectrum residuals and cosmological parameters. The best-fit LCDM cosmology is in excellent agreement with preliminary Planck polarisation spectra. The standard LCDM cosmology is well constrained b...

We present current and future constraints on equations of state for dark sector perturbations. The equations of state considered are those corresponding to a generalized scalar field model and time-diffeomorphism invariant L(g) theories that are equivalent to models of a relativistic elastic medium and also Lorentz violating massive gravity. We develop a theoretical understanding of the observable impact of these models. In order to constrain these models we use CMBtemperature data from Planck, BAO measurements, CMB lensing data from Planck and the South Pole Telescope, and weak galaxy lensing data from CFHTLenS. We find non-trivial exclusions on the range of parameters, although the data remains compatible with w=−1. We gauge how future experiments will help to constrain the parameters. This is done via a likelihood analysis for CMB experiments such as CoRE and PRISM, and tomographic galaxy weak lensing surveys, focussing in on the potential discriminatory power of Euclid on mildly non-linear scales

We present current and future constraints on equations of state for dark sector perturbations. The equations of state considered are those corresponding to a generalized scalar field model and time-diffeomorphism invariant Script L(g) theories that are equivalent to models of a relativistic elastic medium and also Lorentz violating massive gravity. We develop a theoretical understanding of the observable impact of these models. In order to constrain these models we use CMBtemperature data from Planck, BAO measurements, CMB lensing data from Planck and the South Pole Telescope, and weak galaxy lensing data from CFHTLenS. We find non-trivial exclusions on the range of parameters, although the data remains compatible with w=-1. We gauge how future experiments will help to constrain the parameters. This is done via a likelihood analysis for CMB experiments such as CoRE and PRISM, and tomographic galaxy weak lensing surveys, focussing in on the potential discriminatory power of Euclid on mildly non-linear scales.

We conduct a Monte Carlo simulation of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy in the UCSB South Pole 1991 degree-scale experiment. We examine cold dark matter cosmology with large-scale structure seeded by the Harrison-Zel'dovich hierarchy of Gaussian-distributed primordial inhomogeneities normalized to the COBE-DMR measurement of large-angle CMBanisotropy. We find it statistically implausible (in the sense of low cumulative probability F lower than 5 percent, of not measuring a cosmological delta-T/T signal) that the degree-scale cosmological CMBanisotropy predicted in such models could have escaped a detection at the level of sensitivity achieved in the South Pole 1991 experiment.

We perform detailed calculations of cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies in a cold dark matter (CDM)-dominated open universe with primordial adiabatic density perturbations for a variety of reionization histories. The CMBanisotropies depend primarily on the geometry of the universe, which in a matter-dominated universe is determined by Omega and the optical depth to the surface of last scattering. In particular, the location on the primary Doppler peak depends primarily on Omega and is fairly insensitive to the other unknown parameters, such as Omega(sub b), h, Lambda, and the shape of the power spectrum. Therefore, if the primordial density perturbations are adiabatic, measurements of CMBanisotropies on small scales may be used to determine Omega.

We have developed an accurate gravitational lens theory for an inhomogeneity embedded in an otherwise homogeneous universe, which to the lowest order is applicable to any mass distribution. We derive the Fermat potential for a spherically symmetric lens embedded in a FLRW cosmology and use it to investigate the late-time integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect (ISW) caused by individual large scale inhomogeneities, in particular, cosmic voids. We present a simple analytical expression for the CMBtemperature fluctuation across such a lens as the derivative of the lens Fermat potential. Our formalism is applicable to both linear and nonlinear density evolution scenarios, to arbitrarily large density contrasts, and to all open and closed background cosmologies. Our results are particularly useful for modeling ISW effects extracted through stacking large numbers of cosmic voids and clusters (that is, the aperture photometry method). For structures co-expanding with the background cosmology, i.e., for time-independent density contrasts, we find that the gravitational lensing time delay alone can produce fluctuations of the order of seen in recent observations by WMAP and Planck. We revisit the possibility of explaining the non-Gaussian cold spot on the south hemisphere via the Rees-Sciama effect of a large cosmic void using constraints obtained from the most recent void catalogs and our new void-lensing formalism, and compare it with other explanations such as a collapsing cosmic texture. We also study the remapping of primordial CMBanisotropies, the weak-lensing shear, and magnification caused by void lensing.

This work presents a reduced χ ν 2 test to search for non-Gaussian signals in the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) TT power spectrum of recent CMBR data, Wilkinson Anisotropy Microwave Probe, Arcminute Cosmology Bolometer Array Receiver, and Cosmic Background Imager data sets, assuming a mixed density field including adiabatic and isocurvature fluctuations. We assume a skew positive mixed model with adiabatic inflation perturbations plus additional isocurvature perturbations possibly produced by topological defects. The joint probability distribution used in this context is a weighted combination of Gaussian and non-Gaussian random fields. Results from simulations of CMBR temperature for the mixed field show a distinct signature in CMB power spectrum for very small deviations (∼0.1%) from a pure Gaussian field, and can be used as a direct test for the nature of primordial fluctuations. A reduced χ ν 2 test applied on the most recent CMBR observations reveals that an isocurvature fluctuations field is not ruled out and indeed permits a very good description for a flat geometry Λ-CDM Universe, χ 930 2 ∼1.5, rather than the simple inflationary standard model with χ 930 2 ∼2.3. This result may looks is particular discrepant with the reduced χ 2 of 1.07 obtained with the same model in Spergel et al. [Astrophys. J. 148, 175 (2003)] for temperature only, however, our work is restricted to a region of the parameter space that does not include the best fit model for TT only of Spergel et al.

We compute the screening length for quarkonium mesons moving through an anisotropic, strongly coupled mathcal{N} = 4 super Yang-Mills plasma by means of its gravity dual. We present the results for arbitrary velocities and orientations of the mesons, as well as for arbitrary values of the anisotropy. The anisotropic screening length can be larger or smaller than the isotropic one, and this depends on whether the comparison is made at equal temperatures or at equal entropy densities. For generic motion we find that: (i) mesons dissociate above a certain critical value of the anisotropy, even at zero temperature; (ii) there is a limiting velocity for mesons in the plasma, even at zero temperature; (iii) in the ultra-relativistic limit the screening length scales as (1 - v 2)ɛ with ɛ = 1 /2, in contrast with the isotropic result ɛ = 1 /4.

We report accurate ab initio theoretical predictions of the elastic, seismic, and structural anisotropy of the orthorhombic Mg{sub 2}SiO{sub 4} forsterite crystal at high pressures (up to 20 GPa) and temperatures (up to its melting point, 2163 K), which constitute earth’s upper mantle conditions. Single-crystal elastic stiffness constants are evaluated up to 20 GPa and their first- and second-order pressure derivatives reported. Christoffel’s equation is solved at several pressures: directional seismic wave velocities and related properties (azimuthal and polarization seismic anisotropies) discussed. Thermal structural and average elastic properties, as computed within the quasi-harmonic approximation of the lattice potential, are predicted at high pressures and temperatures: directional thermal expansion coefficients, first- and second-order pressure derivatives of the isothermal bulk modulus, and P-V-T equation-of-state. The effect on computed properties of five different functionals, belonging to three different classes of approximations, of the density functional theory is explicitly investigated.

We present a simplified treatment for calculating the cosmic microwave background anisotropy power spectrum in adiabatic models. It consists of solving for the evolution of a two-fluid model until the epoch of recombination and then integrating over the sources to obtain the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy power spectrum. The approximation is useful both for a physical understanding of CMBanisotropies as well as for a quantitative analysis of cosmological models. Comparison with exact calculations shows that the accuracy is typically 10%-20% over a large range of angles and cosmological models, including those with curvature and cosmological constant. Using this approximation we investigate the dependence of the CMBanisotropy on the cosmological parameters. We identify six dimensionless parameters that uniquely determine the anisotropy power spectrum within our approximation. CMB experiments on different angular scales could in principle provide information on all these parameters. In particular, mapping of the Doppler peaks would allow an independent determination of baryon mass density, matter mass density, and the Hubble constant.

We present foreground-reduced CMB maps derived from the full Planck data set in both temperature and polarization. Compared to the corresponding Planck 2013 temperature sky maps, the total data volume is larger by a factor of 3.2 for frequencies between 30 and 70 GHz, and by 1.9 for frequencies between 100 and 857 GHz. In addition, systematic errors in the forms of temperature-to-polarization leakage, analogue-to-digital conversion uncertainties, and very long time constant errors have been dramatically reduced, to the extent that the cosmological polarization signal may now be robustly recovered on angular scales $\\ell\\gtrsim40$. On the very largest scales, instrumental systematic residuals are still non-negligible compared to the expected cosmological signal, and modes with $\\ell < 20$ are accordingly suppressed in the current polarization maps by high-pass filtering. As in 2013, four different CMB component separation algorithms are applied to these observations, providing a measure of stability with re...

Highlights: • In this paper, we propose a non-epitaxially grown PMA thin film of disorder hexagonal Co{sub 50}Pt{sub 50} which can satisfy all the requirements at once. • Although the preparation temperature is at room temperature and no post annealing is required, the film also shows good thermal stability up to 400 °C. • Moreover, the easy-controlling single layer deposition process of the film largely enhances the feasibility of practical production. • Significant PMA is achieved in a wide range of film thickness from 2 nm to 20 nm, which expands the usage form a GMR or TMR magnetic junctions to perpendicular spin polarizer for spin current related engineering. • The presented results may open new opportunities for advanced spintronic devices. - Abstract: Non-epitaxially induced perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) of Co{sub 50}Pt{sub 50} thin films at room temperature (RT) is reported. The CoPt film having a disordered hcp structure shows a magnetocrystalline anisotropy (K{sub u}{sup RT}) of 1–2 × 10{sup 6} erg/cm{sup 3} in a wide range of layer thickness from 2 to 20 nm. K{sub u}{sup RT} of about 1 × 10{sup 6} erg/cm{sup 3} can be preserved after a 400 °C-thermal cycle in the 5-nm-thick sample. Moderate PMA, large thickness range, simple preparation process, low formation temperature but good thermal stability make presented hcp CoPt become a remarkable option for advanced spintronic devices.

We investigate a possible connection between the suppression of the power at low multipoles in the CMB spectrum and the late time acceleration. We show that, assuming a cosmic IR/UV duality between the UV cutoff and a global infrared cutoff given by the size of the future event horizon...

Recent high precision measurements of the CMBanisotropies performed by the BOOMERanG and MAXIMA-1 experiments provide an unmatched set of data allowing to probe different cosmological models. Among these scenarios, motivated by the recent measurements of the luminosity distance versus redshift relation for type Ia supernovae, is the quintessence hypothesis. It consists in assuming that the acceleration of the Universe is due to a scalar field whose final evolution is insensitive to the initial conditions. Within this framework we investigate the cosmological perturbations for two well-motivated potentials: the Ratra-Peebles and the SUGRA tracking potentials. We show that the solutions of the perturbed equations possess an attractor and that, as a consequence, the insensitivity to the initial conditions is preserved at the perturbed level. Then, we study the predictions of these two models for structure formation and CMBanisotropies and investigate the general features of the multipole moments in the presenc...

In this paper we study the possibility of testing Charge-Parity-Time Reversal (CPT) symmetry with cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments. We consider two kinds of Chern-Simons (CS) term, electromagnetic CS term and gravitational CS term, and study their effects on the CMB polarization power spectra in detail. By combining current CMB polarization measurements, the seven-year WMAP, BOOMERanG 2003 and BICEP observations, we obtain a tight constraint on the rotation angle Δα = −2.28±1.02 deg (1 σ), indicating a 2.2 σ detection of the CPT violation. Here, we particularly take the systematic errors of CMB measurements into account. After adding the QUaD polarization data, the constraint becomes −1.34 < Δα < 0.82 deg at 95% confidence level. When comparing with the effect of electromagnetic CS term, the gravitational CS term could only generate TB and EB power spectra with much smaller amplitude. Therefore, the induced parameter ε can not be constrained from the current polarization data. Furthermore, we study the capabilities of future CMB measurements, Planck and CMBPol, on the constraints of Δα and ε. We find that the constraint of Δα can be significantly improved by a factor of 15. Therefore, if this rotation angle effect can not be taken into account properly, the constraints of cosmological parameters will be biased obviously. For the gravitational CS term, the future Planck data still can not constrain ε very well, if the primordial tensor perturbations are small, r < 0.1. We need the more accurate CMBPol experiment to give better constraint on ε.

We present foreground-reduced cosmic microwave background (CMB) maps derived from the full Planck data set in both temperature and polarization. Compared to the corresponding Planck 2013 temperature sky maps, the total data volume is larger by a factor of 3.2 for frequencies between 30 and 70 GHz......, and between 4.5 and 6.1μK averaged over pixels. The cosmological parameters derived from the analysis of temperature power spectra are in agreement at the 1σ level with the Planck 2015 likelihood. Unresolved mismatches between the noise properties of the data and simulations prevent a satisfactory description...... of the higher-order statistical properties of the polarization maps. Thus, the primary applications of these polarization maps are those that do not require massive simulations for accurate estimation of uncertainties, for instance estimation of cross-spectra and cross-correlations, or stacking analyses...

Anisotropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) contain a wealth of information about the past history of the universe and the present values of cosmological parameters. I online some of the theoretical advances of the last few years. In particular, I emphasize that for a wide class of cosmological models, theorists can accurately calculate the spectrum to better than a percent. The spectrum of anisotropies today is directly related to the pattern of inhomogeneities present at the time of recombination. This recognition leads to a powerful argument that will enable us to distinguish inflationary models from other models of structure formation. If the inflationary models turn out to be correct, the free parameters in these models will be determined to unprecedented accuracy by the upcoming satellite missions

Quasiopenness seems to be generic to multifield models of single-bubble open inflation. Instead of producing infinite open universes, these models actually produce an ensemble of very large but finite inflating islands. In this paper we study the possible constraints from CMBanisotropies on existing models of open inflation. The effect of supercurvature anisotropies combined with the quasiopenness of the inflating regions make some models incompatible with observations, and severely reduces the parameter space of others. Supernatural open inflation and the uncoupled two-field model seem to be ruled out due to these constraints for values of Ω0

The anisotropy of microhardness of pure α-Ti single crystals, indentation size effect in single-crystal, course grained (CG) pure and nanocrystalline (NC) VT1-0 titanium, as well as the temperature dependences of the microhardness of single-crystal and CG Ti in the temperature range 77-300 K were studied. The minimum value of hardness was obtained when indenting into the basal plane (0001). The indentation size effect (ISE) was clearly observed in the indentation of soft high-purity single-crystal iodide titanium while it was the least pronounced in a sample of nanocrystalline VT1-0 titanium. It has been demonstrated that the ISE can be described within the model of geometrically necessary dislocations (GND), which follows from the theory of strain gradient plasticity. The true hardness and others parameters of the GND model were determined for all materials. The temperature dependence of the microhardness is in agreement with the idea of the governing role of Peierls relief in the dislocation thermally-activated plastic deformation of pure titanium as has been earlier established and justified in macroscopic tensile investigations at low temperatures. The activation energy and activation volume of dislocation motion in the strained region under the indenter were estimated.

Observations have reported on the high correlation of Pc 1 events with magnetospheric compressions. A number of mechanisms have been suggested for the generation of the Pc 1 waves. In this paper, the authors propose a new mechanism which leads to the generation of Pc 1 waves. The interaction of a dynamic pressure pulse (Δρυ 2 ) with the Earth's bow shock leads to the formation of a weak fast mode shock propagating into the magnetosheath. The shock wave can pass right through a tangential discontinuity (magnetopause) and into the magnetosphere, without disturbing either of the structures. In a quasi-perpendicular geometry, the shock wave exhibits anisotropic heating with T perpendicular > T parallel . This anisotropy drives unstable ion cyclotron waves which they believe can contribute to the generation of the Pc 1 waves which are detected. The viability of the mechanism is demonstrated with simulations. This mechanism could explain peak in the occurrence of observed Pc 1 waves in the postnoon sector where a field-aligned discontinuity in the solar wind would most often be parallel to the magnetopause surface due to the average Parker spiral magnetic field configuration

Atmosphere is one of the most important noise sources for ground-based cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments. By increasing optical loading on the detectors, it amplifies their effective noise, while its fluctuations introduce spatial and temporal correlations between detected signals. We present a physically motivated 3D-model of the atmosphere total intensity emission in the millimeter and sub-millimeter wavelengths. We derive a new analytical estimate for the correlation between detectors time-ordered data as a function of the instrument and survey design, as well as several atmospheric parameters such as wind, relative humidity, temperature and turbulence characteristics. Using an original numerical computation, we examine the effect of each physical parameter on the correlations in the time series of a given experiment. We then use a parametric-likelihood approach to validate the modeling and estimate atmosphere parameters from the polarbear-i project first season data set. We derive a new 1.0% upper limit on the linear polarization fraction of atmospheric emission. We also compare our results to previous studies and weather station measurements. The proposed model can be used for realistic simulations of future ground-based CMB observations.

The separation of emissions from different astrophysical processes is an important step towards the understanding of observational data. This topic of component separation is of particular importance in the observation of the relic cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation, as performed by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe satellite and the more recent Planck mission, launched on 2009 May 14 from Kourou and currently taking data. When performing any sort of component separation, some assumptions about the components must be used. One assumption that many techniques typically use is knowledge of the frequency scaling of one or more components. This assumption may be broken in the presence of calibration errors. Here we compare, in the context of imperfect calibration, the recovery of a clean map of emission of the CMB from observational data with two methods: FastICA (which makes no assumption of the frequency scaling of the components) and an `Internal Linear Combination' (ILC), which explicitly extracts a component with a given frequency scaling. We find that even in the presence of small calibration errors (less than 1 per cent) with a Planck-style mission, the ILC method can lead to inaccurate CMB reconstruction in the high signal-to-noise ratio regime, because of partial cancellation of the CMB emission in the recovered map. While there is no indication that the failure of the ILC will translate to other foreground cleaning or component separation techniques, we propose that all methods which assume knowledge of the frequency scaling of one or more components be careful to estimate the effects of calibration errors.

The impact of the existence of gravitons with non-vanishing masses on the B-modes of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is investigated. We also focus on putative modifications to the speed of the gravitational waves. We find that a change of the graviton speed shifts the acoustic peaks of the CMB and then could be easily constrained. For the case of massive gravity, we show analytically how the B-modes are sourced in a manner differing from the massless case leading to a plateau at low l in the CMB spectrum. We also study the case when there are more than one graviton, and when pressure instabilities are present. The latter would occur in doubly coupled bigravity in the radiation era. We focus on the case where a massless graviton becomes tachyonic in the radiation era whilst a massive one remains stable. As the unstable mode decouples from matter in the radiation era, we find that the effects of the instability is largely reduced on the spectrum of B-modes as long as the unstable graviton does not grow into the non-linear regime. In all cases when both massless and massive gravitons are present, we find that the B-mode CMB spectrum is characterised by a low l plateau together with a shifted position for the first few peaks compared to a purely massive graviton spectrum, a shift which depends on the mixing between the gravitons in their coupling to matter and could serve as a hint in favour of the existence of multiple gravitons.

Ever since the seminal work by Sunyaev and Zel'dovich describing the distortion of the CMB spectrum, due to photons passing through the hot inter cluster gas on its way to us from the surface of last scattering (the so called Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE)), small scale distortions of the CMB by clusters has been used to detect clusters as well as to do cosmology with clusters. Cosmology with clusters in the CMB can be divided into three distinct regimes: a) when the clusters are completely unresolved and contribute to the secondary CMB distortions power spectrum at small angular scales; b) when we can just about resolve the clusters so as to detect the clusters through its total SZE flux such that the clusters can be tagged and counted for doing cosmology and c) when we can completely resolve the clusters so as to measure their sizes and other cluster structural properties and their evolution with redshift. In this article, we take a look at these three aspects of SZE cluster studies and their implication for using clusters as cosmological probes. We show that clusters can be used as effective probes of cosmology, when in all of these three cases, one explores the synergy between cluster physics and cosmology as well take clues about cluster physics from the latest high precision cluster observations (for example, from Chandra and XMM - Newton). As a specific case, we show how an observationally motivated cluster SZ template can explain the CBI-excess without the need for a high σ 8 . We also briefly discuss 'self-calibration' in cluster surveys and the prospect of using clusters as an ensemble of cosmic rulers to break degeneracies arising in cluster cosmology.

We evaluate the ability of future cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments to measure the power spectrum of large scale structure using quadratic estimators of the weak lensing deflection field. We calculate the sensitivity of upcoming CMB experiments such as BICEP, QUaD, BRAIN, ClOVER and Planck to the nonzero total neutrino mass M ν indicated by current neutrino oscillation data. We find that these experiments greatly benefit from lensing extraction techniques, improving their one-sigma sensitivity to M ν by a factor of order four. The combination of data from Planck and the SAMPAN mini-satellite project would lead to σ(M ν )∼0.1 eV, while a value as small as σ(M ν )∼0.035 eV is within the reach of a space mission based on bolometers with a passively cooled 3-4 m aperture telescope, representative of the most ambitious projects currently under investigation. We show that our results are robust not only considering possible difficulties in subtracting astrophysical foregrounds from the primary CMB signal but also when the minimal cosmological model (Λ Mixed Dark Matter) is generalized in order to include a possible scalar tilt running, a constant equation-of-state parameter for the dark energy and/or extra relativistic degrees of freedom

to various external stimuli acting as information carriers in spintronic devices. Here, the first observation of skyrmionic magnetic bubbles with variable topological spin textures formed at room temperature in a frustrated kagome Fe3 Sn2 magnet with uniaxial

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Cosmological inflation predicts a background of gravitational waves that imprint a characteristic polarized pattern on the CMB. This signal is degraded by...

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) have been essential to the development of modern cosmology. Future observations will provide cosmological...

In inflationary cosmology, cosmic reheating after inflation sets the initial conditions for the hot big bang. We investigate how CMB data can be used to study the effective potential and couplings of the inflaton during reheating to constrain the underlying microphysics. If there is a phase of preheating that is driven by a parametric resonance or other instability, then the thermal history and expansion history during the reheating era depend on a large number of microphysical parameters in a complicated way. In this case the connection between CMB observables and microphysical parameters can only established with intense numerical studies. Such studies can help to improve CMB constraints on the effective inflaton potential in specific models, but parameter degeneracies usually make it impossible to extract meaningful best-fit values for individual microphysical parameters. If, on the other hand, reheating is driven by perturbative processes, then it can be possible to constrain the inflaton couplings and the reheating temperature from CMB data. This provides an indirect probe of fundamental microphysical parameters that most likely can never be measured directly in the laboratory, but have an immense impact on the evolution of the cosmos by setting the stage for the hot big bang

The cosmic history before the BBN is highly determined by the physics that operates beyond the Standard Model (BSM) of particle physics and it is poorly constrained observationally. Ongoing and future precision measurements of the CMB observables can provide us with significant information about the pre-BBN era and hence possibly test the cosmological predictions of different BSM scenarios. Supersymmetry is a particularly motivated BSM theory and it is often the case that different superymmetry breaking schemes require different cosmic histories with specific reheating temperatures or low entropy production in order to be cosmologically viable. In this paper we quantify the effects of the possible alternative cosmic histories on the n s and r CMB observables assuming a generic non-thermal stage after cosmic inflation. We analyze TeV and especially multi-TeV super-symmetry breaking schemes assuming the neutralino and gravitino dark matter scenarios. We complement our analysis considering the Starobinsky R 2 inflation model to exemplify the improved CMB predictions that a unified description of the early universe cosmic evolution yields. Our analysis underlines the importance of the CMB precision measurements that can be viewed, to some extend, as complementary to the laboratory experimental searches for supersymmetry or other BSM theories.

We suggest novel statistics for the CMB maps that are sensitive to non-Gaussian features. These statistics are natural generalizations of the geometrical and topological methods that have been already used in cosmology such as the cumulative distribution function and genus. We compute the distribution functions of the Partial Minkowski Functionals for the excursion set above or bellow a constant temperature threshold. Minkowski Functionals are additive and are translationally and rotationally invariant. Thus, they can be used for patchy and/or incomplete coverage. The technique is highly efficient computationally (it requires only O(N) operations, where N is the number of pixels per one threshold level). Further, the procedure makes it possible to split large data sets into smaller subsets. The full advantage of these statistics can be obtained only on very large data sets. We apply it to the 4-year DMR COBE data corrected for the Galaxy contamination as an illustration of the technique.

This talk will summarize some things we can do with future CMB experiments to study the early Universe. An obvious first is to map the polarization from density perturbations to the cosmic-variance limit to improve upon the types of things (cosmological-parameter determination, lensing, etc.) that have been done so far with the temperature. Another direction, which already has considerable momentum, is the pursuit of the characteristic polarization signature of inflationary gravitational waves. But there is also a strong case, which I will review, now being assembled for a space mission to seek the tiny but nonzero departures from a blackbody spectrum that are expected in the standard cosmological model and that may arise from several interesting exotic mechanisms.

Minkowski functionals are a powerful tool to constrain the Gaussianity of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). In the limit of a weakly non Gaussian field, a perturbative approach can be derived [Hikage C., Komatsu E., and Matsubara T., 2006, ApJ, 653, 11] that is completely based on analytical formulae without requiring computationally intensive, dedicated Monte Carlo non Gaussian simulations of the CMBanisotropy. We apply this machinery to an intensity map derived from the 1998 and 2003 flights of BOOMERanG, analyzed here together for the first time. We set limits on the non-linear coupling parameter f NL as -1020 NL <390 at 95% CL, markedly improving the previous constraints set by [De Troia G. et al., 2007, ApJ, 670, L73] whose analysis was limited to the BOOMERanG 2003 dataset. These limits are the most stringent ever set among suborbital experiments.

Minkowski functionals are a powerful tool to constrain the Gaussianity of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). In the limit of a weakly non Gaussian field, a perturbative approach can be derived [Hikage C., Komatsu E., and Matsubara T., 2006, ApJ, 653, 11] that is completely based on analytical formulae without requiring computationally intensive, dedicated Monte Carlo non Gaussian simulations of the CMBanisotropy. We apply this machinery to an intensity map derived from the 1998 and 2003 flights of BOOMERanG, analyzed here together for the first time. We set limits on the non-linear coupling parameter f{sub NL} as -1020

We study how the presence of world-sheet currents affects the evolution of cosmic string networks, and their impact on predictions for the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies generated by these networks. We provide a general description of string networks with currents and explicitly investigate in detail two physically motivated examples: wiggly and superconducting cosmic string networks. By using a modified version of the CMBact code, we show quantitatively how the relevant network parameters in both of these cases influence the predicted CMB signal. Our analysis suggests that previous studies have overestimated the amplitude of the anisotropies for wiggly strings. For superconducting strings the amplitude of the anisotropies depends on parameters which presently are not well known—but which can be measured in future high-resolution numerical simulations.

This article investigates the signature of the seventeen multiconnected flat spaces in cosmic microwave background (CMB) maps. For each such space it recalls a fundamental domain and a set of generating matrices, and then goes on to find an orthonormal basis for the set of eigenmodes of the Laplace operator on that space. The basis eigenmodes are expressed as linear combinations of eigenmodes of the simply connected Euclidean space. A preceding work, which provides a general method for implementing multiconnected topologies in standard CMB codes, is then applied to simulate CMB maps and angular power spectra for each space. Unlike in the 3-torus, the results in most multiconnected flat spaces depend on the location of the observer. This effect is discussed in detail. In particular, it is shown that the correlated circles on a CMB map are generically not back to back, so that negative search of back-to-back circles in the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe data does not exclude a vast majority of flat or nearly flat topologies

Field-ion microscopy was used to study the faceting behavior and/or surface energy anisotropy of tungsten in vacuum and in hydrogen. In vacuum below 1700 K the activation energy for (110) facet growth agreed with values previously reported for surface diffusion on tungsten. The observed anisotropy values at 0.5 Tsub(m), where Tsub(m) is the absolute melting temperature of tungsten (approximately 3680 K), were different from those previously reported at higher temperatures and more nearly agreed with broken bond calculations based on Mie potential using m=5, n=8, and a 1.5% lattice expansion. Hydrogen appeared to have a negligible effect on surface energy anisotropy, but did preferentially increase surface diffusion rates on (310) regions.

A brief review of effective SU(2) Yang-Mills thermodynamics in the deconfining phase is given, including the construction of the thermal ground-state estimate in terms of an inert, adjoint scalar field φ, based on non-propagating (anti)selfdual field configurations of topological charge unity. We also discuss kinematic constraints on interacting propagating gauge fields implied by the according spatial coarse-graining, and we explain why the screening physics of an SU(2) photon is subject to an electric-magnetically dual interpretation. This argument relies on the fact that only (anti)calorons of scale parameter ρ ˜ |φ|-1 contribute to the coarse-graining required for thermal-ground-state emergence at temperature T. Thus, use of the effective gauge coupling e in the (anti)caloron action is justified, yielding the value ħ for the latter at almost all temperatures. As a consequence, the indeterministic transition of initial to final plane waves caused by an effective, pointlike vertex is fundamentally mediated in Euclidean time by a single (anti)caloron being part of the thermal ground state. Next, we elucidate how a low-frequency excess of line temperature in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) determines the value of the critical temperature of the deconfining-preconfining phase transition of an SU(2) Yang-Mills theory postulated to describe photon propagation, and we describe how, starting at a redshift of about unity, SU(2) photons collectively work 3D temperature depressions into the CMB. Upon projection along a line of sight, a given depression influences the present CMB sky in a cosmologically local way, possibly explaining the large-angle anomalies confirmed recently by the Planck collaboration. Finally, six relativistic polarisations residing in the SU(2) vector modes roughly match the number of degrees of freedom in cosmic neutrinos (Planck) which would disqualify the latter as radiation. Indeed, if interpreted as single center-vortex loops in

Full Text Available A brief review of effective SU(2 Yang-Mills thermodynamics in the deconfining phase is given, including the construction of the thermal ground-state estimate in terms of an inert, adjoint scalar field φ, based on non-propagating (antiselfdual field configurations of topological charge unity. We also discuss kinematic constraints on interacting propagating gauge fields implied by the according spatial coarse-graining, and we explain why the screening physics of an SU(2 photon is subject to an electric-magnetically dual interpretation. This argument relies on the fact that only (anticalorons of scale parameter ρ ∼ |φ|−1 contribute to the coarse-graining required for thermal-ground-state emergence at temperature T. Thus, use of the effective gauge coupling e in the (anticaloron action is justified, yielding the value ħ for the latter at almost all temperatures. As a consequence, the indeterministic transition of initial to final plane waves caused by an effective, pointlike vertex is fundamentally mediated in Euclidean time by a single (anticaloron being part of the thermal ground state. Next, we elucidate how a low-frequency excess of line temperature in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB determines the value of the critical temperature of the deconfining-preconfining phase transition of an SU(2 Yang-Mills theory postulated to describe photon propagation, and we describe how, starting at a redshift of about unity, SU(2 photons collectively work 3D temperature depressions into the CMB. Upon projection along a line of sight, a given depression influences the present CMB sky in a cosmologically local way, possibly explaining the large-angle anomalies confirmed recently by the Planck collaboration. Finally, six relativistic polarisations residing in the SU(2 vector modes roughly match the number of degrees of freedom in cosmic neutrinos (Planck which would disqualify the latter as radiation. Indeed, if interpreted as single center

We discuss the principles governing the selection of inflationary models for which preheating can affect the CMB. This is a (fairly small) subset of those models which have nonnegligible entropy/isocurvature perturbations on large scales during inflation. We study new models which belong to this class-two-field inflation with negative nonminimal coupling and hybrid/double/supernatural inflation models where the tachyonic growth of entropy perturbations can lead to the variation of the curvature perturbation, /R, on super-Hubble scales. Finally, we present evidence against recent claims for the variation of /R in the absence of substantial super-Hubble entropy perturbations.

The American Physical Society's Division of Particles and Fields initiated a long-term planning exercise over 2012-13, with the goal of developing the community's long term aspirations. The sub-group "Dark Energy and CMB" prepared a series of papers explaining and highlighting the physics that will be studied with large galaxy surveys and cosmic microwave background experiments. This paper summarizes the findings of the other papers, all of which have been submitted jointly to the arXiv.

Cu-based shape memory alloys are known for their technologically important pseudo-elastic and shapememory properties, which are intimately associated with the martensitic transformation. A combination of deformation theory and finite-strain elasticity theory has been employed to arrive at the expressions for higher order elastic constants of Cu-Al-Zn based on Keating's approach. The second- and third-order elastic constants are in good agreement with the measurements. The aggregate elastic properties like bulk modulus, pressure derivatives, mode Grüneisen parameters of the elastic waves, low temperature limit of thermal expansion, and the Anderson-Grüneisen parameter are also presented.

La{sub 2}NiO{sub 4+δ} was first studied due to its structural similarities with the High Temperature superconductor La{sub 2}NiO{sub 4+δ} and more recently due to its promise as a cathode material in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells as well as an oxygen exchange membrane. It crystallizes in the K{sub 2}NiF{sub 4} layered structure and accommodates highly mobile oxygen at its ground state and is therefore overstoichiometric. During this thesis, pure single crystals of La{sub 2}NiO{sub 4+δ} were successfully grown using the floating-zone method, subsequently characterized using neutron and Laue Backscattering diffraction and oriented pieces of single crystal with [100] and [001] orientation were prepared. The surface morphology behavior after long term exposure to high temperature in different atmospheres was observed using microscopy techniques because stability at high temperature is required for application purposes and it was discovered a structural change to nickel-rich phases at T>1173 K. The sensibility of the oxygen non-stoichiometry to cooling was studied and subsequently a new {sup 18}O-{sup 18}O exchange apparatus allowing quenching of the samples using liquid nitrogen was developed. Oxygen selfdiffusion was studied using SIMS in the range 673-873K in both [100] and [001] crystallographic directions. The effect of the disorientation of the sample surface on the determination of the slowest diffusion coefficient was discovered and revealed the very strong anisotropy (>5 orders of magnitude difference) between the different diffusion paths. Finally using HTXRD and oxygen release experiments, it was shown that oxygen diffusion from interstitial oxygen starts to be relevant at 550-600 K and a change of behavior is observed around 700 K, corresponding to a possible change in the diffusion mechanism from interstitial to interstitialcy.

La 2 NiO 4+δ was first studied due to its structural similarities with the High Temperature superconductor La 2 NiO 4+δ and more recently due to its promise as a cathode material in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells as well as an oxygen exchange membrane. It crystallizes in the K 2 NiF 4 layered structure and accommodates highly mobile oxygen at its ground state and is therefore overstoichiometric. During this thesis, pure single crystals of La 2 NiO 4+δ were successfully grown using the floating-zone method, subsequently characterized using neutron and Laue Backscattering diffraction and oriented pieces of single crystal with [100] and [001] orientation were prepared. The surface morphology behavior after long term exposure to high temperature in different atmospheres was observed using microscopy techniques because stability at high temperature is required for application purposes and it was discovered a structural change to nickel-rich phases at T>1173 K. The sensibility of the oxygen non-stoichiometry to cooling was studied and subsequently a new 18 O- 18 O exchange apparatus allowing quenching of the samples using liquid nitrogen was developed. Oxygen selfdiffusion was studied using SIMS in the range 673-873K in both [100] and [001] crystallographic directions. The effect of the disorientation of the sample surface on the determination of the slowest diffusion coefficient was discovered and revealed the very strong anisotropy (>5 orders of magnitude difference) between the different diffusion paths. Finally using HTXRD and oxygen release experiments, it was shown that oxygen diffusion from interstitial oxygen starts to be relevant at 550-600 K and a change of behavior is observed around 700 K, corresponding to a possible change in the diffusion mechanism from interstitial to interstitialcy.

This paper presents the Planck 2013 likelihood, a complete statistical description of the two-point correlation function of the CMBtemperature fluctuations that accounts for all known relevant uncertainties, both instrumental and astrophysical in nature. We use this likelihood to derive our best estimate of the CMB angular power spectrum from Planck over three decades in multipole moment, ℓ, covering 2 ≤ ℓ ≤ 2500. The main source of uncertainty at ℓ ≲ 1500 is cosmic variance. Uncertainties in small-scale foreground modelling and instrumental noise dominate the error budget at higher ℓs. For ℓ impact of residual foreground and instrumental uncertainties on the final cosmological parameters. We find good internal agreement among the high-ℓ cross-spectra with residuals below a few μK2 at ℓ ≲ 1000, in agreement with estimated calibration uncertainties. We compare our results with foreground-cleaned CMB maps derived from all Planck frequencies, as well as with cross-spectra derived from the 70 GHz Planck map, and find broad agreement in terms of spectrum residuals and cosmological parameters. We further show that the best-fit ΛCDM cosmology is in excellent agreement with preliminary PlanckEE and TE polarisation spectra. We find that the standard ΛCDM cosmology is well constrained by Planck from the measurements at ℓ ≲ 1500. One specific example is the spectral index of scalar perturbations, for which we report a 5.4σ deviation from scale invariance, ns = 1. Increasing the multipole range beyond ℓ ≃ 1500 does not increase our accuracy for the ΛCDM parameters, but instead allows us to study extensions beyond the standard model. We find no indication of significant departures from the ΛCDM framework. Finally, we report a tension between the Planck best-fit ΛCDM model and the low-ℓ spectrum in the form of a power deficit of 5-10% at ℓ ≲ 40, with a statistical significance of 2.5-3σ. Without a theoretically motivated model for

We present 30 GHz measurements of the angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) obtained with the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Array. The measurements are sensitive to arcminute angular scales, where secondary anisotropy from the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) is expected to dominate. For a broad bin centered at multipole 4066, we find 67 +77 -50 μK 2 ; of which 26 ± 5 μK 2 is the expected contribution from primary CMBanisotropy and 80 ± 54 μK 2 is the expected contribution from undetected radio sources. These results imply an upper limit of 155 μK 2 (95% CL) on the secondary contribution to the anisotropy in our maps. This level of SZE anisotropy power is consistent with expectations based on recent determinations of the normalization of the matter power spectrum, i.e., σ 8 ∼ 0.8.

We study the impact of the large-angle CMB polarization datasets publicly released by the WMAP and Planck satellites on the estimation of cosmological parameters of the ΛCDM model. To complement large-angle polarization, we consider the high resolution (or 'high-ℓ') CMB datasets from either WMAP or Planck as well as CMB lensing as traced by Planck 's measured four point correlation function. In the case of WMAP, we compute the large-angle polarization likelihood starting over from low resolution frequency maps and their covariance matrices, and perform our own foreground mitigation technique, which includes as a possible alternative Planck 353 GHz data to trace polarized dust. We find that the latter choice induces a downward shift in the optical depth τ, roughly of order 2σ, robust to the choice of the complementary high resolution dataset. When the Planck 353 GHz is consistently used to minimize polarized dust emission, WMAP and Planck 70 GHz large-angle polarization data are in remarkable agreement: by combining them we find τ = 0.066 {sup +0.012}{sub −0.013}, again very stable against the particular choice for high-ℓ data. We find that the amplitude of primordial fluctuations A {sub s} , notoriously degenerate with τ, is the parameter second most affected by the assumptions on polarized dust removal, but the other parameters are also affected, typically between 0.5 and 1σ. In particular, cleaning dust with Planck 's 353 GHz data imposes a 1σ downward shift in the value of the Hubble constant H {sub 0}, significantly contributing to the tension reported between CMB based and direct measurements of the present expansion rate. On the other hand, we find that the appearance of the so-called low ℓ anomaly, a well-known tension between the high- and low-resolution CMBanisotropy amplitude, is not significantly affected by the details of large-angle polarization, or by the particular high-ℓ dataset employed.

Using a novel set up, experimental study of the statistical properties of a light beam propagating horizontally through indoor convective air turbulence in the presence of a 2D temperature gradient (TG) is presented. A laser beam enters a telescope from its back focal point by virtue of an optical fiber and is expanded and recollimated by it and then passes through the turbulent area. Then the beam enters another telescope’s aperture. A mask consisting of four similar widely separated small subapertures was installed in front of the second telescope’s aperture. The subapertures were equidistant from the optical axis of the telescope and located at the corners of a square. A flat plane heater is used to produce a vertical TG in the medium. Due to the limited width of the heater, a horizontal component for the TG appeared. Near the focal plane of the second telescope, four distinct images of the source are formed and recorded by a CCD camera. Due to the turbulence all the images (spots) in the successive frames fluctuate. Using the four spot displacements we have calculated the fluctuations of the angle of arrival (AA) over the subapertures. The statistical properties of the optical turbulence are investigated using variance analysis of the AA component fluctuations at horizontal and vertical directions over the subapertures for different temperatures of the heater at different heights of the beam path from the heater. Experimental results show that when the heater is turned off, the variances of horizontal and vertical components of the AA fluctuations are approximately equal to zero over all the subapertures. When it is turned on, the variance of the horizontal component of the AA fluctuations over all of the subapertures are larger than those from the vertical one. In addition, in this case, we find a significant dependence of the variance of the AA components on the height from the heater. (paper)

Full Text Available We develop a Feynman diagram approach to calculating correlations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB in the presence of distortions. As one application, we focus on CMB distortions due to gravitational lensing by Large Scale Structure (LSS. We study the Hu–Okamoto quadratic estimator for extracting lensing from the CMB and derive the noise of the estimator up to O(ϕ4 in the lensing potential ϕ. By identifying the diagrams responsible for the previously noted large O(ϕ4 term, we conclude that the lensing expansion does not break down. The convergence can be significantly improved by a reorganization of the ϕ expansion. Our approach makes it simple to obtain expressions for quadratic estimators based on any CMB channel, including many previously unexplored cases. We briefly discuss other applications to cosmology of this diagrammatic approach, such as distortions of the CMB due to patchy reionization, or due to Faraday rotation from primordial axion fields.

The transition from a hydrodynamical modeling to a particle-based approach is a crucial element of the description of high-energy heavy-ion collisions. Assuming this “freeze out” happens instantaneously at each point of the expanding medium, we show that the local phase-space distribution of the emitted particles is asymmetric in momentum space. This suggests the use of anisotropic hydrodynamics for the last stages of the fluid evolution. We discuss how observables depend on the amount of momentum-space anisotropy at freeze out and how smaller or larger anisotropies allow for different values of the freeze-out temperature. (paper)

Full Text Available An anisotropy index seeks to quantify how directionally dependent the properties of a system are. In this article, the focus is on quantifying the elastic anisotropy of crystalline materials. Previous elastic anisotropy indices are reviewed and their shortcomings discussed. A new scalar log-Euclidean anisotropy measure AL is proposed, which overcomes these deficiencies. It is based on a distance measure in a log-Euclidean space applied to fourth-rank elastic tensors. AL is an absolute measure of anisotropy where the limiting case of perfect isotropy yields zero. It is a universal measure of anisotropy applicable to all crystalline materials. Specific examples of strong anisotropy are highlighted. A supplementary material provides an anisotropy table giving the values of AL for 2,176 crystallite compounds.

We review connections between the metric of spacetime and the quantum fluctuations of fields. We start with the finding that the spacetime metric can be expressed entirely in terms of the 2-point correlator of the fluctuations of quantum fields. We then discuss the open question whether the knowledge of only the spectra of the quantum fluctuations of fields also suffices to determine the spacetime metric. This question is of interest because spectra are geometric invariants and their quantization would, therefore, have the benefit of not requiring the modding out of diffeomorphisms. Further, we discuss the fact that spacetime at the Planck scale need not necessarily be either discrete or continuous. Instead, results from information theory show that spacetime may be simultaneously discrete and continuous in the same way that information can. Finally, we review the recent finding that a covariant natural ultraviolet cutoff at the Planck scale implies a signature in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) that may become observable.

We study how uncertainty in the reionization history of the universe affects estimates of other cosmological parameters from the Cosmic Microwave Background. We analyze WMAP7 data and synthetic Planck-quality data generated using a realistic scenario for the reionization history of the universe obtained from high-resolution numerical simulation. We perform parameter estimation using a simple sudden reionization approximation, and using the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) technique proposed by Mortonson and Hu. We reach two main conclusions: (1) Adopting a simple sudden reionization model does not introduce measurable bias into values for other parameters, indicating that detailed modeling of reionization is not necessary for the purpose of parameter estimation from future CMB data sets such as Planck. (2) PCA analysis does not allow accurate reconstruction of the actual reionization history of the universe in a realistic case

We study how uncertainty in the reionization history of the universe affects estimates of other cosmological parameters from the Cosmic Microwave Background. We analyze WMAP7 data and synthetic Planck-quality data generated using a realistic scenario for the reionization history of the universe obtained from high-resolution numerical simulation. We perform parameter estimation using a simple sudden reionization approximation, and using the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) technique proposed by Mortonson and Hu. We reach two main conclusions: (1) Adopting a simple sudden reionization model does not introduce measurable bias into values for other parameters, indicating that detailed modeling of reionization is not necessary for the purpose of parameter estimation from future CMB data sets such as Planck. (2) PCA analysis does not allow accurate reconstruction of the actual reionization history of the universe in a realistic case.

We explore a chameleon type of interacting dark matter-dark energy scenario in which a scalar field adiabatically traces the minimum of an effective potential sourced by the dark matter density. We discuss extensively the effect of this coupling on cosmological observables, especially the parameter degeneracies expected to arise between the model parameters and other cosmological parameters, and then test the model against observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies and other cosmological probes. We find that the chameleon parameters α and β, which determine respectively the slope of the scalar field potential and the dark matter-dark energy coupling strength, can be constrained to α CMB data and measurements of baryon acoustic oscillations. The latter parameter in particular is constrained only by the late Integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect. Adding measurements of the local Hubble expansion rate H 0 tightens the bound on α by a factor of two, although this apparent improvement is arguably an artefact of the tension between the local measurement and the H 0 value inferred from Planck data in the minimal ΛCDM model. The same argument also precludes chameleon models from mimicking a dark radiation component, despite a passing similarity between the two scenarios in that they both delay the epoch of matter-radiation equality. Based on the derived parameter constraints, we discuss possible signatures of the model for ongoing and future large-scale structure surveys

Light gravitinos of mass ∼< O (10) eV are of particular interest in cosmology, offering various baryogenesis scenarios without suffering from the cosmological gravitino problem. The gravitino may contribute considerably to the total matter content of the Universe and affect structure formation from early to present epochs. After the gravitinos decouple from other particles in the early Universe, they free-stream and consequently suppress density fluctuations of (sub-)galactic length scales. Observations of structure at the relevant length-scales can be used to infer or constrain the mass and the abundance of light gravitinos. We derive constraints on the light gravitino mass using the data of cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing from Planck and of cosmic shear from the Canada France Hawaii Lensing Survey survey, combined with analyses of the primary CMBanisotropies and the signature of baryon acoustic oscillations in galaxy distributions. The obtained constraint on the gravitino mass is m {sub 3/2} < 4.7 eV (95 % C.L.), which is substantially tighter than the previous constraint from clustering analysis of Ly-α forests.

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarimeter (ACTPol) is a polarization sensitive upgrade for the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, located at an elevation of 5190 m on Cerro Toco in Chile. In summer 2013, ACTPol achieved first light with one third of the final detector configuration. The remaining two thirds of the detector array will be installed during spring 2014, enabling full sensitivity, high resolution, observations at both 90 GHz and 150 GHz. Using approximately 3,000 transition-edge sensor bolometers, ACTPol will enable measurements of small angular scale polarization anisotropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). I will present a status update for the ACTPol receiver and some preliminary results. ACTPol measurements will allow us to probe the spectral index of inflation as well as to constrain early dark energy and the sum of neutrino masses.

In this paper, we explore the impact of Dark Matter-photon interactions on the CMB angular power spectrum. Using the one-year data release of the Planck satellite, we derive an upper bound on the Dark Matter-photon elastic scattering cross section of σ DM−γ ≤ 8 × 10 −31 (m DM /GeV) cm 2 (68% CL) if the cross section is constant and a present-day value of σ DM−γ ≤ 6 × 10 −40 (m DM /GeV) cm 2 (68% CL) if it scales as the temperature squared. For such a limiting cross section, both the B-modes and the TT angular power spectrum are suppressed with respect to ΛCDM predictions for ℓ∼>500 and ℓ∼>3000 respectively, indicating that forthcoming data from CMB polarisation experiments and Planck could help to constrain and characterise the physics of the dark sector. This essentially initiates a new type of dark matter search that is independent of whether dark matter is annihilating, decaying or asymmetric. Thus, any CMB experiment with the ability to measure the temperature and/or polarisation power spectra at high ℓ should be able to investigate the potential interactions of dark matter and contribute to our fundamental understanding of its nature

Over the last decade, cosmological observations have attained a level of precision which allows for very detailed comparison with theoretical predictions. We are beginning to learn the answers to some fundamental questions, using information contained in Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropy (CMBA) data. In this talk, we briefly review some studies of the current and prospected constraints imposed by CMBA measurements on the neutrino physics and on the dark energy. As it was already announced by Scott, we present some possible new physics from the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)

We explore the possible cosmological consequence of the gravitational coupling between the inflaton and axion-like fields. In view of the forthcoming cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization and lensing data, we study the sensitivity of the CMB data on the cross-correlation between the curvature and axion isocurvature perturbations. Through a concrete example, we illustrate the explicit dependence of the scale dependent cross-correlation power spectrum on the axion parameters

A series of studies carried out at IBM on the magnetic, transport, and optical properties of single crystal Y 1 Ba 2 Cu 3 O/sub 7-//sub x/ demonstrate the overriding importance of anisotropy in its superconducting and normal-state properties

CMB-S4 is a proposed experiment to map the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) to nearly the cosmic variance limit for the angular scales that are accessible from the ground. The science goals and capabilities of CMB-S4 in illuminating cosmic inflation, measuring the sum of neutrino masses, searching for relativistic relics in the early universe, characterizing dark energy and dark matter, and mapping the matter distribution in the universe have been described in the CMB-S4 Science Book. This Technology Book is a companion volume to the Science Book. The ambitious science goals of the proposed "Stage-IV" CMB-S4 will require a step forward in experimental capability from the current Stage-III experiments. To guide this process, the community summarized the current state of the technology and identify R&D efforts necessary to advance it for possible use in CMB-S4. The book focused on the technical challenges in four broad areas: Telescope Design; Receiver Optics; Focal-Plane Optical Coupling; and Focal-Plane Sensor and Readout.

A new generation of surveys will soon map large fractions of sky to ever greater depths and their science goals can be enhanced by exploiting cross correlations between them. In this paper we study cross correlations between the lensing of the CMB and biased tracers of large-scale structure at high z . We motivate the need for more sophisticated bias models for modeling increasingly biased tracers at these redshifts and propose the use of perturbation theories, specifically Convolution Lagrangian Effective Field Theory (CLEFT). Since such signals reside at large scales and redshifts, they can be well described by perturbative approaches. We compare our model with the current approach of using scale independent bias coupled with fitting functions for non-linear matter power spectra, showing that the latter will not be sufficient for upcoming surveys. We illustrate our ideas by estimating σ{sub 8} from the auto- and cross-spectra of mock surveys, finding that CLEFT returns accurate and unbiased results at high z . We discuss uncertainties due to the redshift distribution of the tracers, and several avenues for future development.

We study the capability of Planck data to constrain deviations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) blackbody temperature from adiabatic evolution using the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich anisotropy induced by clusters of galaxies. We consider two types of data sets depending on how the cosmological signal is removed: using a CMB template or using the 217 GHz map. We apply two different statistical estimators, based on the ratio of temperatureanisotropies at two different frequencies and on a fit to the spectral variation of the cluster signal with frequency. The ratio method is biased if CMB residuals with amplitude {approx}1 {mu}K or larger are present in the data, while residuals are not so critical for the fit method. To test for systematics, we construct a template from clusters drawn from a hydro-simulation included in the pre-launch Planck Sky Model. We demonstrate that, using a proprietary catalog of X-ray-selected clusters with measured redshifts, electron densities, and X-ray temperatures, we can constrain deviations of adiabatic evolution, measured by the parameter {alpha} in the redshift scaling T(z) = T{sub 0}(1 + z){sup 1-{alpha}}, with an accuracy of {sigma}{sub {alpha}} = 0.011 in the most optimal case and with {sigma}{sub {alpha}} = 0.018 for a less optimal case. These results represent a factor of 2-3 improvement over similar measurements carried out using quasar spectral lines and a factor 6-20 with respect to earlier results using smaller cluster samples.

We study the capability of Planck data to constrain deviations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) blackbody temperature from adiabatic evolution using the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich anisotropy induced by clusters of galaxies. We consider two types of data sets depending on how the cosmological signal is removed: using a CMB template or using the 217 GHz map. We apply two different statistical estimators, based on the ratio of temperatureanisotropies at two different frequencies and on a fit to the spectral variation of the cluster signal with frequency. The ratio method is biased if CMB residuals with amplitude approximately 1 microK or larger are present in the data, while residuals are not so critical for the fit method. To test for systematics, we construct a template from clusters drawn from a hydro-simulation included in the pre-launch Planck Sky Model. We demonstrate that, using a proprietary catalog of X-ray-selected clusters with measured redshifts, electron densities, and X-ray temperatures, we can constrain deviations of adiabatic evolution, measured by the parameter a in the redshift scaling T (z) = T0(1 + z)(sup 1-alpha), with an accuracy of sigma(sub alpha) = 0.011 in the most optimal case and with sigma alpha = 0.018 for a less optimal case. These results represent a factor of 2-3 improvement over similar measurements carried out using quasar spectral lines and a factor 6-20 with respect to earlier results using smaller cluster samples.

Fractional anisotropy, defined as the distance of a diffusion tensor from its closest isotropic tensor, has been extensively studied as quantitative anisotropy measure for diffusion tensor magnetic resonance images (DT-MRI). It has been used to reveal the white matter profile of brain images, as guiding feature for seeding and stopping in fiber tractography and for the diagnosis and assessment of degenerative brain diseases. Despite its extensive use in DT-MRI community, however, not much attention has been given to the mathematical correctness of its derivation from diffusion tensors which is achieved using Euclidean dot product in 9D space. But, recent progress in DT-MRI has shown that the space of diffusion tensors does not form a Euclidean vector space and thus Euclidean dot product is not appropriate for tensors. In this paper, we propose a novel and robust rotationally invariant diffusion anisotropy measure derived using the recently proposed Log-Euclidean and J-divergence tensor distance measures. An interesting finding of our work is that given a diffusion tensor, its closest isotropic tensor is different for different tensor distance metrics used. We demonstrate qualitatively that our new anisotropy measure reveals superior white matter profile of DT-MR brain images and analytically show that it has a higher signal to noise ratio than fractional anisotropy.

We study the effect of Faraday rotation due to a uniform magnetic field on the polarization of the cosmic microwave background. Scalar fluctuations give rise only to parity-even E-type polarization of the cosmic microwave background. However in the presence of a magnetic field, a nonvanishing parity-odd B-type polarization component is produced through Faraday rotation. We derive the exact solution for the E and B modes generated by scalar perturbations including the Faraday rotation effect of a uniform magnetic field, and evaluate their cross correlations with temperatureanisotropies. We compute the angular autocorrelation function of the B-modes in the limit that the Faraday rotation is small. We find that uniform primordial magnetic fields of present strength around B 0 =10 -9 G rotate E-modes into B-modes with amplitude comparable to those due to the weak gravitational lensing effect at frequencies around ν=30 GHz. The strength of B-modes produced by Faraday rotation scales as B 0 /ν 2 . We evaluate also the depolarizing effect of Faraday rotation upon the cross correlation between temperatureanisotropy and E-type polarization

We study the signal from patchy reionization in view of the future high accuracy polarization measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). We implement an extraction procedure of the patchy reionization signal analogous to CMB lensing. We evaluate the signal to noise ratio (SNR) for the future Stage IV (S4) CMB experiment. The signal has a broad peak centered on the degree angular scales, with a long tail at higher multipoles. The CMB S4 experiment can effectively constrain the properties of reionization by measuring the signal on degree scales. The signal amplitude depends on the properties of the structure determining the reionization morphology. We describe bubbles having radii distributed log-normally. The expected S/N is sensitive to the mean bubble radius: bar R=5 Mpc implies S/N ≈ 4, bar R=10 Mpc implies S/N ≈ 20. The spread of the radii distribution strongly affects the integrated SNR, that changes by a factor of 102 when σlnr goes from ln 2 to ln 3. Future CMB experiments will thus place important constraints on the physics of reionization.

POLARBEAR is a cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization experiment located in the Atacama desert in Chile. The science goals of the POLARBEAR project are to do a deep search for CMB B-mode polarization created by inflationary gravitational waves, as well as characterize the CMB B-mode signal from gravitational lensing. POLARBEAR-1 started observations in 2012, and the POLARBEAR team has published a series of results from its first season of observations, including the first measurement of a non-zero B-mode polarization angular power spectrum, measured at sub-degree scales where the dominant signal is gravitational lensing of the CMB. Recently, we released an improved measurement of the B-mode polarization power spectrum, improving our band-power uncertainties by a factor of two, by adding new data from our second observing season and re-analyzing the combined data set.To further improve on these measurements, POLARBEAR is expanding to include an additional two telescopes with multi-chroic receivers observing at 95, 150, 220, and 270 GHz, known as the Simons Array. With high sensitivity and large sky coverage, the Simons Array will create a detailed survey of B-mode polarization, and its spectral information will be used to extract the CMB signal from astrophysical foregrounds. We will present the latest POLARBEAR results, as well as the status of development of the Simons Array and its expected capabilities.

The resistive effect of domain walls in FePd films with perpendicular anisotropy was studied experimentally as a function of field and temperature. The films were grown directly on MgO substrates, which induces an unusual virgin magnetic configuration composed of 60 nm wide parallel stripe domains. This allowed us to carry out the first measurements of the anisotropy of domain wall resistivity in the two configurations of current perpendicular and parallel to the walls. At 18 K, we find 8.2% and 1.3% for the domain wall magnetoresistance normalized to the wall width (8 nm) in these two respective configurations. These values are consistent with the predictions of Levy and Zhang.

on the same hybrid approach used for the previous release, i.e., a pixel-based likelihood at low multipoles (ℓ data and of Planck polarization......This paper presents the Planck 2015 likelihoods, statistical descriptions of the 2-point correlationfunctions of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization fluctuations that account for relevant uncertainties, both instrumental and astrophysical in nature. They are based...... information, along with more detailed models of foregrounds and instrumental uncertainties. The increased redundancy brought by more than doubling the amount of data analysed enables further consistency checks and enhanced immunity to systematic effects. It also improves the constraining power of Planck...

Cosmology and other scientific results from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) mission require an accurate knowledge of the beam patterns in flight. While the degree of beam knowledge for the WMAP one-year and three-year results was unprecedented for a CMB experiment, we have significantly improved the beam determination as part of the five-year data release. Physical optics fits are done on both the A and the B sides for the first time. The cutoff scale of the fitted distortions on the primary mirror is reduced by a factor of ~2 from previous analyses. These changes enable an improvement in the hybridization of Jupiter data with beam models, which is optimized with respect to error in the main beam solid angle. An increase in main-beam solid angle of ~1% is found for the V2 and W1-W4 differencing assemblies. Although the five-year results are statistically consistent with previous ones, the errors in the five-year beam transfer functions are reduced by a factor of ~2 as compared to the three-year analysis. We present radiometry of the planet Jupiter as a test of the beam consistency and as a calibration standard; for an individual differencing assembly, errors in the measured disk temperature are ~0.5%. WMAP is the result of a partnership between Princeton University and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Scientific guidance is provided by the WMAP Science Team.

We summarize the utility of precise cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization measurements as probes of the physics of inflation. We focus on the prospects for using CMB measurements to differentiate various inflationary mechanisms. In particular, a detection of primordial B-mode polarization would demonstrate that inflation occurred at a very high energy scale, and that the inflaton traversed a super-Planckian distance in field space. We explain how such a detection or constraint would illuminate aspects of physics at the Planck scale. Moreover, CMB measurements can constrain the scale-dependence and non-Gaussianity of the primordial fluctuations and limit the possibility of a significant isocurvature contribution. Each such limit provides crucial information on the underlying inflationary dynamics. Finally, we quantify these considerations by presenting forecasts for the sensitivities of a future satellite experiment to the inflationary parameters.

We consider the possibility that the primordial curvature perturbation is direction-dependent. To first order this is parameterised by a quadrupolar modulation of the power spectrum and results in statistical anisotropy of the CMB, which can be quantified using `bipolar spherical harmonics'. We compute these for the Planck DR2-2015 SMICA map and estimate the noise covariance from Planck Full Focal Plane 9 simulations. A constant quadrupolar modulation is detected with 2.2 σ significance, dropping to 2σ when the primordial power is assumed to scale with wave number k as a power law. Going beyond previous work we now allow the spectrum to have arbitrary scale-dependence. Our non-parametric reconstruction then suggests several spectral features, the most prominent at k ~ 0.006 Mpc‑1. When a constant quadrupolar modulation is fitted to data in the range 0.005 <= k/Mpc‑1 <= 0.008, its preferred directions are found to be related to the cosmic hemispherical asymmetry and the CMB dipole. To determine the significance we apply two test statistics to our reconstructions of the quadrupolar modulation from data, against reconstructions of realisations of noise only. With a test statistic sensitive only to the amplitude of the modulation, the reconstructions from the multipole range 30 <= l <= 1200 are unusual with 2.1σ significance. With the second test statistic, sensitive also to the direction, the significance rises to 6.9σ. Our approach is easily generalised to include other data sets such as polarisation, large-scale structure and forthcoming 21-cm line observations which will enable these anomalies to be investigated further.

We explore a chameleon type of interacting dark matter-dark energy scenario in which a scalar field adiabatically traces the minimum of an effective potential sourced by the dark matter density. We discuss extensively the effect of this coupling on cosmological observables, especially the parameter degeneracies expected to arise between the model parameters and other cosmological parameters, and then test the model against observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies and other cosmological probes. We find that the chameleon parameters α and β, which determine respectively the slope of the scalar field potential and the dark matter-dark energy coupling strength, can be constrained to α CMB data and measurements of baryon acoustic oscillations. The latter parameter in particular is constrained only by the late Integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect. Adding measurements of the local Hubble expansion rate H{sub 0} tightens the bound on α by a factor of two, although this apparent improvement is arguably an artefact of the tension between the local measurement and the H{sub 0} value inferred from Planck data in the minimal ΛCDM model. The same argument also precludes chameleon models from mimicking a dark radiation component, despite a passing similarity between the two scenarios in that they both delay the epoch of matter-radiation equality. Based on the derived parameter constraints, we discuss possible signatures of the model for ongoing and future large-scale structure surveys.

We investigate the statistics of the cosmic microwave background using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. We show that, when we correctly de-correlate the data, the partition function of the Kolmogorov stochasticity parameter is compatible with the Kolmogorov distribution and, contrary to previous claims, the CMB data are compatible with Gaussian fluctuations with the correlation function given by standard ΛCDM. We then use the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to derive upper bounds on residual point source power in the CMB, and indicate the promise of this statistics for further datasets, especially Planck, to search for deviations from Gaussianity and for detecting point sources and Galactic foregrounds

We study the imprints of a single lens, that breaks statistical isotropy, on the CMB and calculate the signal to noise ratio (S/N) for its detection. We emphasize the role of non-Gaussianities induced by ΛCDM weak lensing in this calculation and show that typically the S/N is much smaller than expected. In particular we find that the hypothesis that a void (texture) is responsible for the WMAP cold spot can barely (cannot) be tested via weak lensing of the CMB.

We study the imprints of a single lens, that breaks statistical isotropy, on the CMB and calculate the signal to noise ratio (S/N) for its detection. We emphasize the role of non-Gaussianities induced by ΛCDM weak lensing in this calculation and show that typically the S/N is much smaller than expected. In particular we find that the hypothesis that a void (texture) is responsible for the WMAP cold spot can barely (cannot) be tested via weak lensing of the CMB

The deformation behavior under uni-axial tensile loading is investigated and reported in the case of cold rolled Nimonic C-263 alloy sheet products of different thicknesses (0.5 mm and 1 mm) in the solution treated and aged conditions. The studies conducted include (i) Microstructure, (ii) X-ray diffraction, (iii) Texture and (iv) Tensile properties and inplane anisotropy in the yield behavior (both tensile yield strength and ultimate tensile strength as well as ductility). The results of the present study showed that despite the presence of weak crystallographic texture in this crystal symmetric material, the degrees of in-plane anisotropy in strength as well as plastic deformation properties are found to be significant in both solution treated and aged conditions, thus having significant technological relevance for both further processing and design purposes. Further, the influence of aging and sheet thickness on the tensile deformation behaviour is also found to be considerable. A brief discussion on the technological implications of these results is also included. (orig.)

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) contains perturbations that are close to Gaussian and isotropic. This means that its information content, in the sense of the ability to constrain cosmological models, is closely related to the number of modes probed in CMB power spectra. Rather than making forecasts for specific experimental setups, here we take a more pedagogical approach and ask how much information we can extract from the CMB if we are only limited by sample variance. We show that, compared with temperature measurements, the addition of E-mode polarization doubles the number of modes available out to a fixed maximum multipole, provided that all of the TT, TE, and EE power spectra are measured. However, the situation in terms of constraints on particular parameters is more complicated, as we explain and illustrate graphically. We also discuss the enhancements in information that can come from adding B-mode polarization and gravitational lensing. We show how well one could ever determine the basic cosmological parameters from CMB data compared with what has been achieved with Planck, which has already probed a substantial fraction of the TT information. Lastly, we look at constraints on neutrino mass as a specific example of how lensing information improves future prospects beyond the current 6-parameter model.

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) contains perturbations that are close to Gaussian and isotropic. This means that its information content, in the sense of the ability to constrain cosmological models, is closely related to the number of modes probed in CMB power spectra. Rather than making forecasts for specific experimental setups, here we take a more pedagogical approach and ask how much information we can extract from the CMB if we are only limited by sample variance. We show that, compared with temperature measurements, the addition of E -mode polarization doubles the number of modes available out to a fixed maximum multipole, provided that all of the TT , TE , and EE power spectra are measured. However, the situation in terms of constraints on particular parameters is more complicated, as we explain and illustrate graphically. We also discuss the enhancements in information that can come from adding B -mode polarization and gravitational lensing. We show how well one could ever determine the basic cosmological parameters from CMB data compared with what has been achieved with Planck , which has already probed a substantial fraction of the TT information. Lastly, we look at constraints on neutrino mass as a specific example of how lensing information improves future prospects beyond the current 6-parameter model.

Temperature dependence of α-zirconium seft-diffusion anisotropy coefficients is obtained within the framework of linear extrapolation of self-diffusion anisotropy characteristics for metal HCP with c/a ration of [ru

Anisotropy is well established in D'' and places important constraints on the nature and dynamics of this elusive region. We present the results of a recent study probing anisotropy in D'', over a large area, using shear wave splitting on core-reflected ScS phases. Our dataset contains laterally continuous coverage beneath a large swath of east Asia - extending about 3000 km along the CMB - from south-east Asia to the north-east Pacific. The centre of this area represents a large down-welling core for subduction that has occurred over several super-continent cycles. In the centre of this region we observe a clear VSV}>V{SH fabric, in direct conflict with the prevailing view that fast, `cold', regions are associated with VSH}>V{SV fabric. Furthermore, systematic rotation of the fast axis traces out an apparent dome-like feature extending over thousands of km, albeit complicated by some short-scale variability. The dataset also samples regions where slab material may be actively impinging on the CMB; and a region corresponding to the edge of the Pacific LLSVP. We interpret our results in light of a combined computational geodynamic-petrofabric-seismic study designed to test the possibility that anisotropy is caused by the lattice preferred orientation of post-perovskite. We take into account the important finite-frequency effects of wave propagation in our synthetics by using the SPECFEM3D_GLOBE code; this can lead to drastically different results when compared to the less accurate ray theory.

We compute the primordial scalar, vector and tensor metric perturbations arising from quantum field inflation. Quantum field inflation takes into account the nonperturbative quantum dynamics of the inflaton consistently coupled to the dynamics of the (classical) cosmological metric. For chaotic inflation, the quantum treatment avoids the unnatural requirements of an initial state with all the energy in the zero mode. For new inflation it allows a consistent treatment of the explosive particle production due to spinodal instabilities. Quantum field inflation (under conditions that are the quantum analog of slow-roll) leads, upon evolution, to the formation of a condensate starting a regime of effective classical inflation. We compute the primordial perturbations taking the dominant quantum effects into account. The results for the scalar, vector and tensor primordial perturbations are expressed in terms of the classical inflation results. For a N-component field in a O(N) symmetric model, adiabatic fluctuations dominate while isocurvature or entropy fluctuations are negligible. The results agree with the current Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe observations and predict corrections to the power spectrum in classical inflation. Such corrections are estimated to be of the order of (m 2 /NH 2 ), where m is the inflaton mass and H the Hubble constant at the moment of horizon crossing. An upper estimate turns to be about 4% for the cosmologically relevant scales. This quantum field treatment of inflation provides the foundations to the classical inflation and permits to compute quantum corrections to it

We present a new upper limit on cosmic microwave background (CMB) circular polarization from the 2015 flight of Spider, a balloon-borne telescope designed to search for B-mode linear polarization from cosmic inflation. Although the level of circular polarization in the CMB is predicted to be very small, experimental limits provide a valuable test of the underlying models. By exploiting the nonzero circular-to-linear polarization coupling of the half-wave plate polarization modulators, data from Spider's 2015 Antarctic flight provide a constraint on Stokes V at 95 and 150 GHz in the range 33< {\\ell }< 307. No other limits exist over this full range of angular scales, and Spider improves on the previous limit by several orders of magnitude, providing 95% C.L. constraints on {\\ell }({\\ell }+1){C}{\\ell }{VV}/(2π ) ranging from 141 to 255 μK2 at 150 GHz for a thermal CMB spectrum. As linear CMB polarization experiments become increasingly sensitive, the techniques described in this paper can be applied to obtain even stronger constraints on circular polarization.

We consider the pre-big bang scenario with a massive axion field which starts to dominate energy density when oscillating in an instanton-induced potential and subsequently reheats the universe as it decays into photons, thus creating adiabatic CMB perturbations. We find that the fluctuations...

We present a new upper limit on CMB circular polarization from the 2015 flight of SPIDER, a balloon-borne telescope designed to search for $B$-mode linear polarization from cosmic inflation. Although the level of circular polarization in the CMB is predicted to be very small, experimental limits provide a valuable test of the underlying models. By exploiting the non-zero circular-to-linear polarization coupling of the HWP polarization modulators, data from SPIDER's 2015 Antarctic flight provides a constraint on Stokes $V$ at 95 and 150 GHz from $33CMB spectrum. As linear CMB polarization experiments become increasingly sensitive, the techniques described in this paper can be applied to obtain stronger constraints on circular polarization.

A stochastic background of primordial gravitational waves may substantially contribute, via the Sachs-Wolfe effect, to the large-scale cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies recently detected by COBE. This implies a bias in any resulting determination of the primordial amplitude of density fluctuations. We consider the constraints imposed on n is less than 1 ('tilted') power-law fluctuation spectra, taking into account the contribution from both scalar and tensor waves, as predicted by power-law inflation. The gravitational wave contribution to CMBanisotropies generally reduces the required rms level of mass fluctuation, thereby increasing the linear bias parameter, even in models where the spectral index is close to the Harrison-Zel'dovich value n = 1. This 'gravitational wave bias' helps to reconcile the predictions of CDM models with observations on pairwise galaxy velocity dispersion on small scales.

Room temperature magnetic measurements in deoxigenated sickle cells showed the existence of magnetic anisotropy, Δchi=1,29 x 10 -3 . This effect was supposed paramagnetic and considered to be due to the iron atoms of the hemoglobin molecules which are one over the other, forming ordered chains inside the erythrocytes. Low temperature (liquid He - 4,2K) measurements of the magnetic anisotropy of sickle cells and normal red blood cells diluted in a cryoprotector was made to confirm the paramagnetic origin of the fenomena. For that purpose it was used a superconductor magnetometer coupled to a SQUID, developed in the 'Laboratorio do Estado Solido do Departamento de Fisica da PUC-RJ'. The results obtained seem to confirm the expected paramagnetic anisotropy and, furthermore, suggest the presence of magnetic interactions among the iron atoms in the sickle cells samples. (Author) [pt

Full Text Available The powerful “Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB” signal currently associated with the origins of the Universe is examined from a historical perspective and relative to the experimental context in which it was measured. Results from the COBE satellite are reviewed, with particular emphasis on the systematic error observed in determining the CMBtemperature. The nature of the microwave signal emanating from the oceans is also discussed. From this analysis, it is demonstrated that it is improper for the COBE team to model the Earth as a 285 K blackbody source. The assignment of temperatures to objects that fail to meet the requirements set forth in Kirchhoff’s law constitutes a serious overextension of the laws of thermal emission. Using this evidence, and the general rule that powerful signals are associated with proximal sources, the CMB monopole signal is reassigned to the oceans. In turn, through the analysis of COBE, WMAP, and Relikt-1 data, the dipole signal is attributed to motion through a much weaker microwave field present both at the position of the Earth and at the second Lagrange point.

We consider a cosmological model in which the tensor mode becomes massive during inflation, and study the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature and polarization bispectra arising from the mixing between the scalar mode and the massive tensor mode during inflation. The model assumes the existence of a preferred spatial frame during inflation. The local Lorentz invariance is already broken in cosmology due to the existence of a preferred rest frame. The existence of a preferred spatial frame further breaks the remaining local SO(3) invariance and in particular gives rise to a mass in the tensor mode. At linear perturbation level, we minimize our model so that the vector mode remains non-dynamical, while the scalar mode is the same as the one in single-field slow-roll inflation. At non-linear perturbation level, this inflationary massive graviton phase leads to a sizeable scalar-scalar-tensor coupling, much greater than the scalar-scalar-scalar one, as opposed to the conventional case. This scalar-scalar-tensor interaction imprints a scale dependent feature in the CMBtemperature and polarization bispectra. Very intriguingly, we find a surprizing similarity between the predicted scale dependence and the scale-dependent non-Gaussianities at low multipoles hinted in the WMAP and Planck results.

We consider the prospects of probing features in the primordial power spectrum with future Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization measurements. In the scope of the inflationary scenario, such features in the spectrum can be produced by local non-smooth pieces in an inflaton potential (smooth and quasi-flat in general) which in turn may originate from fast phase transitions during inflation in other quantum fields interacting with the inflaton. They can fit some outliers in the CMBtemperature power spectrum which are unaddressed within the standard inflationary ΛCDM model. We consider Wiggly Whipped Inflation (WWI) as a theoretical framework leading to improvements in the fit to the Planck 2015 temperature and polarization data in comparison with the standard inflationary models, although not at a statistically significant level. We show that some type of features in the potential within the WWI models, leading to oscillations in the primordial power spectrum that extend to intermediate and small scales can be constrained with high confidence (at 3σ or higher confidence level) by an instrument as the Cosmic ORigins Explorer (CORE). In order to investigate the possible confusion between inflationary features and footprints from the reionization era, we consider an extended reionization history with monotonic increase of free electrons with decrease in redshift. We discuss the present constraints on this model of extended reionization and future predictions with CORE. We also project, to what extent, this extended reionization can create confusion in identifying inflationary features in the data.

We summarize some applications of big bang nucleosythesis (BBN) and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) to constrain the first moments of the creation of matter in the universe. We review the basic elements of BBN and how it constraints physics of the radiation-dominated epoch. In particular, how the existence of higher dimensions impacts the cosmic expansion through the projection of curvature from the higher dimension in the "dark radiation" term. We summarize current constraints from BBN and the CMB on this brane-world dark radiation term. At the same time, the existence of extra dimensions during the earlier inflation impacts the tensor to scalar ratio and the running spectral index as measured in the CMB. We summarize how the constraints on inflation shift when embedded in higher dimensions. Finally, one expects that the universe was born out of a complicated multiverse landscape near the Planck time. In these moments the energy scale of superstrings was obtainable during the early moments of chaotic inflation. We summarize the quest for cosmological evidence of the birth of space-time out of the string theory landscape. We will explore the possibility that a superstring excitations may have made itself known via a coupling to the field of inflation. This may have left an imprint of "dips" in the power spectrum of temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background. The identification of this particle as a superstring is possible because there may be evidence for different oscillator states of the same superstring that appear on different scales on the sky. It will be shown that from this imprint one can deduce the mass, number of oscillations, and coupling constant for the superstring. Although the evidence is marginal, this may constitute the first observation of a superstring in Nature.

A strong correlation between the far-IR and HCN(1−0) line luminosities, known as the Gao–Solomon relation, has been observed to hold over more than 10 orders of magnitude in the local universe. Departures from this relation at redshifts ≳1.5 have been interpreted as evidence for increased dense gas star formation efficiency in luminous galaxies during the period of peak of star formation in the history of the universe. We examine whether the offsets from the relation can be explained by the hotter Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) at high redshift, which, due to a loss of contrast against the hotter background, reduces the observable molecular-line flux far more significantly than the far-IR continuum bands. Simple line-of-sight modeling argues for highly significant departures from the Gao–Solomon relation at high redshift for kinetic temperatures ∼15 K, while more complex toy-galaxy models based on NGC 1068 suggest a much weaker effect with the galaxy integrated HCN line flux falling by only 10% at z = 3, within the intrinsic scatter of the relation. We conclude that, while the CMB is unlikely to explain the deviations reported in the literature, it may introduce a second-order effect on the relation by raising the low-luminosity end of the Gao–Solomon relation in cooler galaxies. A similar examination of the CO-IR relation finds tantalizing signs of the CMB having a measurable effect on the integrated CO emission in high-redshift galaxies, but these signs cannot be confirmed with the current data.

A strong correlation between the far-IR and HCN(1−0) line luminosities, known as the Gao–Solomon relation, has been observed to hold over more than 10 orders of magnitude in the local universe. Departures from this relation at redshifts ≳1.5 have been interpreted as evidence for increased dense gas star formation efficiency in luminous galaxies during the period of peak of star formation in the history of the universe. We examine whether the offsets from the relation can be explained by the hotter Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) at high redshift, which, due to a loss of contrast against the hotter background, reduces the observable molecular-line flux far more significantly than the far-IR continuum bands. Simple line-of-sight modeling argues for highly significant departures from the Gao–Solomon relation at high redshift for kinetic temperatures ∼15 K, while more complex toy-galaxy models based on NGC 1068 suggest a much weaker effect with the galaxy integrated HCN line flux falling by only 10% at z = 3, within the intrinsic scatter of the relation. We conclude that, while the CMB is unlikely to explain the deviations reported in the literature, it may introduce a second-order effect on the relation by raising the low-luminosity end of the Gao–Solomon relation in cooler galaxies. A similar examination of the CO-IR relation finds tantalizing signs of the CMB having a measurable effect on the integrated CO emission in high-redshift galaxies, but these signs cannot be confirmed with the current data.

We explicate the origin of the temperature quadrupole in the adiabatic dark energy model and explore the mechanism by which scale invariant isocurvature dark energy perturbations can lead to its sharp suppression. The model requires anticorrelated curvature and isocurvature fluctuations and is favored by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe data at about the 95% confidence level in a flat scale invariant model. In an inflationary context, the anticorrelation may be established if the curvature fluctuations originate from a variable decay rate of the inflaton; such models however tend to overpredict gravitational waves. This isocurvature model can in the future be distinguished from alternatives involving a reduction in large scale power or modifications to the sound speed of the dark energy through the polarization and its cross correlation with the temperature. The isocurvature model retains the same polarization fluctuations as its adiabatic counterpart but reduces the correlated temperature fluctuations. We present a pedagogical discussion of dark energy fluctuations in a quintessence and k-essence context in the Appendix

The Planck satellite is the third generation experiment dedicated to the observation of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The resolution and sensibility of its instruments allow for the first time the detection of the weak lensing effect on CMB. This thesis present a original detection method of this effect in the data of the HFI instrument of Planck.The first part give a general description of the standard model of cosmology et the physics of the CMB. The part then presents the details of the weak lensing effect, concentrating on its impact on the CMB observables. This part ends with a description of the Planck satellite and its instruments.The second part, describes the set of simulations and analysis tools that I have developed allowing me to make the first measurement of the weak lensing effect on CMB. It presents the original method that I used which is based on a patch analysis of the full sky data, that is able to only take into account the less contaminated regions. This part also present the characterisation of the lensing potential estimator for masked maps in the presence of inhomogeneous noise and introduce a method, based on Monte-Carlo simulations, that is used to correct for the bias produced by the analysis method.The last part, concentrates on the work on HFI data. The first chapter presents the application of the above method to the maps of the combined observations at 143 GHz and 217 GHz and the maps from component separation using GMCA algorithm. The results show a deflection power spectrum compatible with the one expect in a lambda CMB universe, calculated with the cosmological parameters estimated by WMAP including seven years of observations. Using the points, from the combined estimation from the 143 GHz and 217 GHz maps, for multipole smaller than 500, gives a 1.26 Chi2 by degree of freedom. Finally, the last chapter presents the compression algorithm used onboard to compression HFI data. It gives the details of the tuning and the

The recent measurements of the power spectrum of cosmic microwave background anisotropies are consistent with the simplest inflationary scenario and big bang nucleosynthesis constraints. However, these results rely on the assumption of a class of models based on primordial adiabatic perturbations, cold dark matter and a cosmological constant. In this paper we investigate the need for deviations from the Λ-CDM scenario by first characterizing the spectrum using a phenomenological function in a 15 dimensional parameter space. Using a Monte Carlo Markov chain approach to Bayesian inference and a low curvature model template we then check for the presence of new physics and/or systematics in the CMB data. We find an almost perfect consistency between the phenomenological fits and the standard Λ-CDM models. The curvature of the secondary peaks is weakly constrained by the present data, but they are well located. The improved spectral resolution expected from future satellite experiments is warranted for a definitive test of the scenario

Future cosmic microwave background experiments for high-resolution anisotropy mapping and polarisation detection require large arrays of bolometers at low temperature. We have developed a process to build arrays of antenna-coupled bolometers for that purpose. With adjustment of the Nb x Si 1-x alloy composition, the array can be made of high impedance or superconductive (TES) sensors

Dark energy can be studied by its influence on the expansion of the Universe as well as on the growth history of the large-scale structure. In this paper, we follow the growth of the cosmic density field in early dark energy cosmologies by combining observations of the primary CMBtemperature and polarisation power spectra at high redshift, of the CMB lensing deflection field at intermediate redshift and of weak cosmic shear at low redshifts for constraining the allowed amount of early dark energy. We present these forecasts using the Fisher matrix formalism and consider the combination of Planck data with the weak lensing survey of Euclid. We find that combining these data sets gives powerful constraints on early dark energy and is able to break degeneracies in the parameter set inherent to the various observational channels. The derived statistical 1σ-bound on the early dark energy density parameter is σ(Ω e d ) = 0.0022 which suggests that early dark energy models can be well examined in our approach. In addition, we derive the dark energy figure of merit for the considered dark energy parameterisation and comment on the applicability of the growth index to early dark energy cosmologies

This paper presents the Planck 2015 likelihoods, statistical descriptions of the 2-point correlation functions of CMBtemperature and polarization. They use the hybrid approach employed previously: pixel-based at low multipoles, $\\ell$, and a Gaussian approximation to the distribution of cross-power spectra at higher $\\ell$. The main improvements are the use of more and better processed data and of Planck polarization data, and more detailed foreground and instrumental models. More than doubling the data allows further checks and enhanced immunity to systematics. Progress in foreground modelling enables a larger sky fraction, contributing to enhanced precision. Improvements in processing and instrumental models further reduce uncertainties. Extensive tests establish robustness and accuracy, from temperature, from polarization, and from their combination, and show that the {\\Lambda}CDM model continues to offer a very good fit. We further validate the likelihood against specific extensions to this baseline, suc...

Full Text Available Surface temperature is a key variable in boundary-layer meteorology and is typically acquired by remote observation of emitted thermal radiation. However, the three-dimensional structure of cities complicates matters: uneven solar heating of urban facets produces an “effective anisotropy” of surface thermal emission at the neighbourhood scale. Remotely-sensed urban surface temperature varies with sensor view angle as a consequence. The authors combine a microscale urban surface temperature model with a thermal remote sensing model to predict the effective anisotropy of simplified neighbourhood configurations. The former model provides detailed surface temperature distributions for a range of “urban” forms, and the remote sensing model computes aggregate temperatures for multiple view angles. The combined model’s ability to reproduce observed anisotropy is evaluated against measurements from a neighbourhood in Vancouver, Canada. As in previous modeling studies, anisotropy is underestimated. Addition of moderate coverages of small (sub-facet scale structure can account for much of the missing anisotropy. Subsequently, over 1900 sensitivity simulations are performed with the model combination, and the dependence of daytime effective thermal anisotropy on diurnal solar path (i.e., latitude and time of day and blunt neighbourhood form is assessed. The range of effective anisotropy, as well as the maximum difference from nadir-observed brightness temperature, peak for moderate building-height-to-spacing ratios (H/W, and scale with canyon (between-building area; dispersed high-rise urban forms generate maximum anisotropy. Maximum anisotropy increases with solar elevation and scales with shortwave irradiance. Moreover, it depends linearly on H/W for H/W < 1.25, with a slope that depends on maximum off-nadir sensor angle. Decreasing minimum brightness temperature is primarily responsible for this linear growth of maximum anisotropy. These

This book lays out the scientific goals to be addressed by the next-generation ground-based cosmic microwave background experiment, CMB-S4, envisioned to consist of dedicated telescopes at the South Pole, the high Chilean Atacama plateau and possibly a northern hemisphere site, all equipped with new superconducting cameras. CMB-S4 will dramatically advance cosmological studies by crossing critical thresholds in the search for the B-mode polarization signature of primordial gravitational waves, in the determination of the number and masses of the neutrinos, in the search for evidence of new light relics, in constraining the nature of dark energy, and in testing general relativity on large scales.

Many theories beyond the Standard Model include extra dimensions, though these have yet to be directly observed. In this work we consider the possibility of a compactification mechanism which both allows extra dimensions and is compatible with current observations. This compactification is predicted to leave a signature on the CMB by altering the amplitude of the low l multipoles, dependent on the amount of inflation. Recently discovered CMB anomalies at low multipoles may be evidence for this. In our model we assume the spacetime is the product of a four-dimensional spacetime and flat extra dimensions. Before the compactification, both the four-dimensional spacetime and the extra dimensions can either be expanding or contracting independently. Taking into account physical constraints, we explore the observational consequences and the plausibility of these different models.

SPIDER is a balloon-borne instrument designed to map the polarization of the millimeter-wave sky at large angular scales. SPIDER targets the B-mode signature of primordial gravitational waves in the cosmic microwave background (CMB), with a focus on mapping a large sky area with high fidelity at multiple frequencies. SPIDER's first longduration balloon (LDB) flight in January 2015 deployed a total of 2400 antenna-coupled Transition Edge Sensors (TESs) at 90 GHz and 150 GHz. In this work we review the design and in-flight performance of the SPIDER instrument, with a particular focus on the measured performance of the detectors and instrument in a space-like loading and radiation environment. SPIDER's second flight in December 2018 will incorporate payload upgrades and new receivers to map the sky at 285 GHz, providing valuable information for cleaning polarized dust emission from CMB maps.

We analyze a class of generalized inflationary models proposed in ref. [1], known as β-exponential inflation. We show that this kind of potential can arise in the context of brane cosmology, where the field describing the size of the extra-dimension is interpreted as the inflaton. We discuss the observational viability of this class of model in light of the latest Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) data from the Planck Collaboration through a Bayesian analysis, and impose tight constraints on the model parameters. We find that the CMB data alone prefer weakly the minimal standard model (ΛCDM) over the β-exponential inflation. However, when current local measurements of the Hubble parameter, H0, are considered, the β-inflation model is moderately preferred over the ΛCDM cosmology, making the study of this class of inflationary models interesting in the context of the current H0 tension.

The lowermost few hundred kilometres of the Earth's mantle—known as D″—form the boundary between it and the core below, control the Earth's convective system, and are the site of probable large thermochemical heterogeneity. Seismic observations of D″ show a strong heterogeneity in seismic wave velocity and significant seismic anisotropy (the variation of wave speed with direction) are present in many parts of the region. On the basis of continuous regions of fast shear velocity (VS) anomalies in global models, it is also proposed as the resting place of subducted slabs, notably the Farallon beneath North America. A phase change of MgSiO3-perovskite (pv) to a post-perovskite (ppv) structure at near-core-mantle boundary (CMB) conditions is a compelling mechanism to explain the seismic features of D″. An outstanding question is how this and other mineral phases may deform to produce anisotropy, with different mechanisms possible. With knowledge either of mantle flow or which slip system is responsible for causing deformation, we can potentially determine the other with observations of the resulting seismic anisotropy. We investigate the dynamics at the CMB beneath North America using differential shear wave splitting in S and ScS phases from earthquakes of magnitude MW>5.5 in South and Central America, Hawaii the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and East Pacific Rise. They are detected on ~500 stations in North America, giving ~700 measurements of anisotropy in D″. We achieve this by correcting for anisotropy in the upper mantle (UM) beneath both the source and receiver. The measurements cover three regions beneath western USA, the Yucatan peninsula and Florida. In each case, two different, crossing ray paths are used, so that the style of anisotropy can be constrained—a single azimuth cannot distinguish differing cases. Our results showing ~1% anisotropy dependent on azimuth are not consistent with transverse isotropy with a vertical symmetry axis (VTI) anywhere. The

The ecliptic plane components of the pressure tensors for low-energy ( or =1.2 approximately 25% of the time. Due to the low energy density of the electrons, however, this anisotropy is not itself sufficient to balance the tension of the magnetic field

Cosmological birefringence is a rotation of the polarization plane of photons coming from sources of astrophysical and cosmological origin. The rotation can also depend on the energy of the photons and not only on the distance of the source and on the cosmological evolution of the underlying theoretical model. In this work, we constrain few selected models for cosmological birefringence, combining CMB and astrophysical data at radio, optical, X and γ wavelengths, taking into account the specific energy and distance dependences.

We report a thermal analysis of a polarization modulator unit (PMU) for use in a space-borne cosmic microwave background (CMB) project. A measurement of the CMB polarization allows us to probe the physics of early universe, and that is the best method to test the cosmic inflation experimentally. One of the key instruments for this science is to use a halfwave plate (HWP) based polarization modulator. The HWP is required to rotate continuously at about 1 Hz below 10 K to minimize its own thermal emission to a detector system. The rotating HWP system at the cryogenic environment can be realized by using a superconducting magnetic bearing (SMB) without significant heat dissipation by mechanical friction. While the SMB achieves the smooth rotation due to the contactless bearing, an estimation of a levitating HWP temperature becomes a challenge. We manufactured a one-eighth scale prototype model of PMU and built a thermal model. We verified our thermal model with the experimental data. We forecasted the projected thermal performance of PMU for a full-scale model based on the thermal model. From this analysis, we discuss the design requirement toward constructing the full-scale model for use in a space environment such as a future CMB satellite mission, LiteBIRD.

We show that the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization data gathered by the BOOMERanG 2003 flight and WMAP provide an opportunity to investigate in-vacuo birefringence, of a type expected in some quantum pictures of space-time, with a sensitivity that extends even beyond the desired Planck-scale energy. In order to render this constraint more transparent we rely on a well studied phenomenological model of quantum-gravity-induced birefringence, in which one easily establishes that effects introduced at the Planck scale would amount to values of a dimensionless parameter, denoted by xi, with respect to the Planck energy which are roughly of order 1. By combining BOOMERanG and WMAP data we estimate xiapprox =-0.097+-0.075 at the 68% c.l. Moreover, we forecast on the sensitivity to xi achievable by future CMB polarization experiments (PLANCK, Spider, EPIC), which, in the absence of systematics, will be at the 1-sigma confidence of 8.5x10{sup -4} (PLANCK), 6.1x10{sup -3} (Spider), and 1.0x10{sup -5} (EPIC) respectively. The cosmic variance-limited sensitivity from CMB is 6.1x10{sup -6}.

We show that the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization data gathered by the BOOMERanG 2003 flight and WMAP provide an opportunity to investigate in-vacuo birefringence, of a type expected in some quantum pictures of space-time, with a sensitivity that extends even beyond the desired Planck-scale energy. In order to render this constraint more transparent we rely on a well studied phenomenological model of quantum-gravity-induced birefringence, in which one easily establishes that effects introduced at the Planck scale would amount to values of a dimensionless parameter, denoted by ξ, with respect to the Planck energy which are roughly of order 1. By combining BOOMERanG and WMAP data we estimate ξ≅-0.097±0.075 at the 68% c.l. Moreover, we forecast on the sensitivity to ξ achievable by future CMB polarization experiments (PLANCK, Spider, EPIC), which, in the absence of systematics, will be at the 1-σ confidence of 8.5x10 -4 (PLANCK), 6.1x10 -3 (Spider), and 1.0x10 -5 (EPIC) respectively. The cosmic variance-limited sensitivity from CMB is 6.1x10 -6 .

We have used the Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Association (BIMA) millimeter array outfitted with sensitive centimeter-wave receivers to search for cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies on arcminute scales. The interferometer was placed in a compact configuration that produces high brightness sensitivity, while providing discrimination against point sources. Operating at a frequency of 28.5 GHz, the FWHM primary beam of the instrument is approximately 6'.6. We have made sensitive images of seven fields, four of which where chosen specifically to have low infrared dust contrast and to be free of bright radio sources. Additional observations with the Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) millimeter array were used to assist in the location and removal of radio point sources. Applying a Bayesian analysis to the raw visibility data, we place limits on CMBanisotropy flat-band power of Q(sub flat) = 5.6(sub -5.6)(exp 3.0) microK and Q(sub flat) < 14.1 microK at 68% and 95% confidence, respectively. The sensitivity of this experiment to flat-band power peaks at a multipole of I = 5470, which corresponds to an angular scale of approximately 2'. The most likely value of Q(sub flat) is similar to the level of the expected secondary anisotropies.

We have used the Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland-Association (BIMA) millimeter array outfitted with sensitive cm-wave receivers to search for Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies on arcminute scales. The interferometer was placed in a compact configuration which produces high brightness sensitivity, while providing discrimination against point sources. Operating at a frequency of 28.5 GHz, the FWHM primary beam of the instrument is 6.6 arcminutes. We have made sensitive images of seven fields, five of which where chosen specifically to have low IR dust contrast and be free of bright radio sources. Additional observations with the Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) millimeter array were used to assist in the location and removal of radio point sources. Applying a Bayesian analysis to the raw visibility data, we place limits on CMBanisotropy flat-band power Q_flat = 5.6 (+3.0, -5.6) uK and Q_flat < 14.1 uK at 68% and 95% confidence. The sensitivity of this experiment to flat band power peaks at a multipole of l = 5470, which corresponds to an angular scale of approximately 2 arcminutes The most likely value of Q_flat is similar to the level of the expected secondary anisotropies.

We have used the Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland-Association (BIMA) array outfitted with sensitive cm-wave receivers to expand our search for minute scale anisotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). The interferometer was placed in a compact configuration to obtain high brightness sensitivity on arcminute scales over its 6.6' FWHM field of view. The sensitivity of this experiment to flat band power peaks at a multipole of 1 = 5530 which corresponds to an angular scale of -2'. We present the analysis of a total of 470 hours of on-source integration time on eleven independent fields which were selected based on their low IR contrast and lack of bright radio sources. Applying a Bayesian analysis to the visibility data, we find CMBanisotropy flat band power Q_flat = 6.1(+2.8/-4.8) microKelvin at 68% confidence. The confidence of a nonzero signal is 76% and we find an upper limit of Q_flat < 12.4 microKelvin at 95% confidence. We have supplemented our BIMA observations with concurrent observations at 4.8 GHz with the VLA to search for and remove point sources. We find the point sources make an insignificant contribution to the observed anisotropy.

Simulations estimating the brightness temperature (delta T-b) of the redshifted 21 cm from the epoch of reionization (EoR) often assume that the spin temperature (T-s) is decoupled from the background cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and is much larger than it, i.e. T-s T-CMB. Although

We present a theoretical and experimental study of two little-studied manganese phosphide ferromagnets, HfMnP and ZrMnP, with Curie temperatures above room temperature. We find an anisotropy field in HfMnP approaching 10 T - larger than that of the permanent magnet workhorse NdFeB magnets. From theory we determine the source of this anisotropy. Our results show the potential of 3d-element-based magnetic materials for magnetic applications.

Lensing of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is now a well-developed probe of the clustering of the large-scale mass distribution over a broad range of redshifts. By exploiting the non-Gaussian imprints of lensing in the polarization of the CMB, the CORE mission will allow production of a clean map of the lensing deflections over nearly the full-sky. The number of high-S/N modes in this map will exceed current CMB lensing maps by a factor of 40, and the measurement will be sample-variance limited on all scales where linear theory is valid. Here, we summarise this mission product and discuss the science that will follow from its power spectrum and the cross-correlation with other clustering data. For example, the summed mass of neutrinos will be determined to an accuracy of 17 meV combining CORE lensing and CMB two-point information with contemporaneous measurements of the baryon acoustic oscillation feature in the clustering of galaxies, three times smaller than the minimum total mass allowed by neutrino oscillation measurements. Lensing has applications across many other science goals of CORE, including the search for B-mode polarization from primordial gravitational waves. Here, lens-induced B-modes will dominate over instrument noise, limiting constraints on the power spectrum amplitude of primordial gravitational waves. With lensing reconstructed by CORE, one can "delens" the observed polarization internally, reducing the lensing B-mode power by 60 %. This can be improved to 70 % by combining lensing and measurements of the cosmic infrared background from CORE, leading to an improvement of a factor of 2.5 in the error on the amplitude of primordial gravitational waves compared to no delensing (in the null hypothesis of no primordial B-modes). Lensing measurements from CORE will allow calibration of the halo masses of the tens of thousands of galaxy clusters that it will find, with constraints dominated by the clean polarization-based estimators. The 19

Elastic properties of rocks are sensitive to changes of the in-situ stress and damage state. In particular, seismic velocities are strongly affected by stress-induced formation and deformation of cracks or shear-enhanced pore collapse. The effect of stress on seismic velocities as a result of pore space deformation in isotropic rock at isostatic compression may be expressed by the equation: A+K*P-B*exp (-D*P) (1), where P=Pc-Pp is the effective pressure, the pure difference between confining pressure and pore pressure. The parameter A, K, B and D describe material constants determined using experimental data. The physical meaning of the parameters is given by Shapiro (2003, in Geophysics Vol.68(Nr.2)). Parameter D is related to the stress sensitivity of the rock. A similar relation was derived by Shapiro and Kaselow (2005, in Geophysics in press) for weak anisotropic rocks under arbitrary load. They describe the stress dependent anisotropy in terms of Thomson's (1986, in Geophysics, Vol. 51(Nr.10)) anisotropy parameters ɛ and γ as a function of stress in the case of an initially isotropic rock: ɛ ∝ E2-E3, γ ∝ E3-E2 (2) with Ei=exp (D*Pi). The exponential terms Ei are controlled by the effective stress components Pi. To test this relation, we have conducted a series of triaxial compression tests on dry samples of initially isotropic Etnean Basalt in a servo-controlled MTS loading frame equipped with a pressure cell. Confining pressure was 60, 40 and 20 MPa. Samples were 5 cm in diameter and 10 cm in length. Elastic anisotropy was induced by axial compression of the samples through opening and growth of microcracks predominantly oriented parallel to the sample axis. Ultrasonic P- and S- wave velocities were monitored parallel and normal to the sample axis by an array of 20 piezoceramic transducers glued to the surface. Preamplified full waveform signals were stored in two 12 channel transient recorders. According to equation 2 the anisotropy parameters are

Lensing of the CMB is an important effect, and is usually modelled by remapping the unlensed CMB fields by a lensing deflection. However the lensing deflections also change the photon path so that the emission angle is no longer orthogonal to the background last-scattering surface. We give the first calculation of the emission-angle corrections to the standard lensing approximation from dipole (Doppler) sources for temperature and quadrupole sources for temperature and polarization. We show that while the corrections are negligible for the temperature and E-mode polarization, additional large-scale B-modes are produced with a white spectrum that dominates those from post-Born field rotation (curl lensing). On large scales about one percent of the total lensing-induced B-mode amplitude is expected to be due to this effect. However, the photon emission angle does remain orthogonal to the perturbed last-scattering surface due to time delay, and half of the large-scale emission-angle B modes cancel with B modes from time delay to give a total contribution of about half a percent. While not important for planned observations, the signal could ultimately limit the ability of delensing to reveal low amplitudes of primordial gravitational waves. We also derive the rotation of polarization due to multiple deflections between emission and observation. The rotation angle is of quadratic order in the deflection angle, and hence negligibly small: polarization typically rotates by less than an arcsecond, orders of magnitude less than a small-scale image rotates due to post-Born field rotation (which is quadratic in the shear). The field-rotation B modes dominate the other effects on small scales.

We contribute another anisotropy study to this field of research using Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). In this work, we utilise the power spectrum calculation method and apply it to both the current SNe Ia data and simulation. Using the Union2.1 data set at all redshifts, we compare the spectrum of the residuals of the observed distance moduli to that expected from an isotropic universe affected by the Union2.1 observational uncertainties at low multipoles. Through this comparison we find a dipolar anisotropy with tension of less that 2σ towards l = 171° ± 21° and b = −26° ± 28° which is mainly induced by anisotropic spatial distribution of the SNe with z > 0.2 rather than being a cosmic effect. Furthermore, we find a tension of ∼ 4σ at ℓ = 4 between the two spectra. Our simulations are constructed with the characteristics of the upcoming surveys like the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), which shall bring us the largest SNe Ia collection to date. We make predictions for the amplitude of a possible dipolar anisotropy that would be detectable by future SNe Ia surveys.

A systemic study of the deposition processes and magnetic properties for the Sm-Co film system has been carried out. Films of Sm-Co system with various magnetic anisotropies have been synthesized through sputter deposition in both crystalline and amorphous phases. The origins of various anisotropies have been studied. Thermalized sputter deposition process control was used to synthesize Fe enriched Sm-Co films with rhombohedral Th 2 Zn 17 type structure. The film exhibited unusually strong textures with the crystallographic c axes of the crystallites aligned in the film plane. A large anisotropy was resulted with easy axis in the film plane. A well defined and large in-the-film-plane anisotropy of exceptionally high value of 3.3 x 10 6 erg/cm 3 has been obtained in the amorphous SmCo films by applying a magnetic field in the film plane during deposition. It was found that the in-the-film-plane anisotropy depended essentially on the applied field and Sm concentration. For films not synthesized through thermallized sputtering, the easy axis of the film could reoriented. A perpendicular anisotropy was also presented in the film synthesized through thermallized sputtering deposition. A large in-plane anisotropy was obtained in films deposited above ambient temperatures. It was concluded that the surface induced short range ordering was the origin of the in-the-film-phase anisotropy observed in amorphous film deposited in the presence of a magnetic field. The formation mechanism was different from that of the short range ordering induced by field annealing. The perpendicular anisotropy was shown to be growth induced. Large in-plane anisotropy in amorphous films was resulted form partial crystallization in the film. Both the formation of growth induced structure and partial crystallization in the film prevented the formation of the pair ordering and decreased in-the-film-plane anisotropy

Mg alloy sheet materials often exhibit plastic anisotropy at room temperature as a result of the limited slip systems available in the HCP lattice combined with a commonly strong basal texture. Less well studied is plastic anisotropy developed at the elevated temperatures associated with warm and hot forming. At these elevated temperatures, particularly above 200°C, the activation of additional slip systems significantly increases ductility. However, plastic anisotropy is also induced at elevated temperatures by a strong crystallographic texture, and it can require an accounting in material constitutive models to achieve accurate forming simulations. The type and degree of anisotropy under these conditions depend on both texture and deformation mechanism. The current understanding of plastic anisotropy in Mg AZ31B and ZEK100 sheet materials at elevated temperatures is reviewed in this article. The recent construction of material forming cases is also reviewed with strategies to account for plastic anisotropy in forming simulations.

Recent analysis of the WMAP and Planck data have shown the presence of a dip and a bump in the spectrum of primordial perturbations at the scales k = 0.002 Mpc{sup -1}, respectively. We analyze for the first time the effects of a local feature in the inflaton potential to explain the observed deviations from scale invariance in the primordial spectrum. We perform a best-fit analysis of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation temperature and polarization data. The effects of the features can improve the agreement with observational data respect to the featureless model. The best-fit local feature affects the primordial curvature spectrum mainly in the region of the bump, leaving the spectrum unaffected on other scales. (orig.)

This grant has supported work at Brown University on measurements of the 2.7 K Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMB). The goal has been to characterize the spatial variations in the temperature of the CMB in order to understand the formation of large-scale structure in the universe. We have concurrently pursued two measurements using millimeter-wave telescopes carried aloft by scientific balloons. Both systems operate over a range of wavelengths, chosen to allow spectral removal of foreground sources such as the atmosphere, Galaxy, etc. The angular resolution of approx. 25 arcminutes is near the angular scale at which the most structure is predicted by current models to be visible in the CMB angular power spectrum. The main goal is to determine the angular scale of this structure; in turn we can infer the density parameter, Omega, for the universe as well as other cosmological parameters, such as the Hubble constant.

power law form spectrum. Besides the inevitable ... measurement of the thermodynamic temperature of the CMB at 1280 MHz. 2. The receiver ... from the feed assembly and the third term is the receiver temperature as referred to the circulator ...

The thermodynamics of several elemental superconductors is computed from isotropic Eliashberg theory formulated on the imaginary frequency axis. A symmary of the available experimental literature is presented and a comparison with theory is given. The small disagreements that are found are all in the direction expected from anisotropy effects. We calculate the effect of a small amount of model anisotropy on the critical temperature, critical field, and high-temperature specific heat from an exact solution of the anisotropic Eliashberg equations. These are the first such results below the critical temperature; unlike previous analytical work, we include retardation, anisotropy in the mass enhancement, and the effect of the Coulomb repulsion in enhancing anisotropy, all of which are significant. We derive a new formula independent of any model anisotropy for the rate of decrease with impurity lifetime of the critical temperature. Finally we demonstrate how the commonly used formulas of Markowitz and Kadanoff and of Clem may give entirely misleading estimates of the gap anisotropy when used to interpret certain experiments.

A theory is developed of transfer phenomena with pronounced ion-sound turbulence. A transfer anisotropy effect is observed which is due to the temperature gradient. The corresponding fluxes across the effective force vector generating the turbulence are found to be considerably greater than the longitudinal fluxes in a plasma with a comparatively low degree of nonisothermality. In a strongly nonisothermal plasma the suppression of transverse fluxes occurs, corresponding to the growth of thermal insulation of the current-carrying plasma filaments

stress Variation in the rolling plane, which may be as high as 20%, are presented. The traditional Taylor model is applied to the data to account for the effect of texture. However, texture effects alone are not enough to explain all of the observed anisotropy. New models which take the combined effects...... of texture and deformation microstructure into account are presented. The models are based on the Taylor and Sachs models but modified with an anisotropic critical shear stress to account for the effect of the microstructure. The agreement between experimental data and model predictions is definitely better...

Since the Galactic center is ~1000 times brighter than fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background (CMB), CMB experiments must carefully account for stray Galactic pickup. We present the level of contamination due to sidelobes for the first-year CMB maps produced by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) observatory. For each radiometer, full 4π sr antenna gain patterns are determined from a combination of numerical prediction and ground-based and space-based measurements. These patterns are convolved with the WMAP first-year sky maps and observatory scan pattern to generate the expected sidelobe signal contamination, for both intensity and polarized microwave sky maps. When the main beams are outside of the Galactic plane, we find rms values for the expected sidelobe pickup of 15, 2.1, 2.0, 0.3, and 0.5 μK for the K, Ka, Q, V, and W bands, respectively. Except for at the K band, the rms polarized contamination is the Galactic pickup are presented. WMAP is the result of a partnership between Princeton University and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Scientific guidance is provided by the WMAP Science Team.

We report the results of our continued study of arcminute scale anisotropy in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) with the Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Association (BIMA) array. The survey consists of ten independent fields selected for low infrared dust emission and lack of bright radio point sources. With observations from the VLA (Very Large Array) at 4.8 GHz, we have identified point sources which could act as contaminants in estimates of the CMB power spectrum and removed them in the analysis. Modeling the observed power spectrum with a single. flat band power with average multipole of l(sub eff) = 6864, we find Delta T = 14.2((sup +4.8)(sub -6.0)) micro K at 68% confidence. The signal in the visibility data exceeds the expected contribution from instrumental noise with 96.5% confidence. We have also divided the data into two bins corresponding to different spatial resolutions in the power spectrum. We find Delta T(sub 1) = 16.6((sup +5.3)(sub -5.9)) micro K at 68% confidence for CMB flat band power described by an average multipole of l(sub eff) = 5237 and Delta T(sub 2) is less than 26.5 micro K at 95% confidence for l(sub eff) = 8748.

We describe two related experiments that measured the anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). QMAP was a balloon-borne telescope that flew twice in 1996, collecting data on degree angular scales with an array of six high electron mobility transistor-based amplifiers (HEMTs). QMAP used an interlocking scan strategy to directly produce high signal-to-noise ratio CMB maps over a limited region of sky. The QMAP gondola was then refitted for ground-based work as the MAT/TOCO experiment. Observations were made from 5200 m on Cerro Toco in Northern Chile in 1997 and 1998 using time domain beam synthesis. MAT/TOCO measured the rise and fall of the CMB angular spectrum, thereby localizing the position of the first peak to lpeak=216+/-14. In addition to describing the instruments, we discuss the data selection methods, check for systematic errors, and compare the MAT/TOCO results to those from recent experiments. The previously reported data are updated to account for a small calibration shift and corrected to account for a small contribution from known sources of foreground emission. The resulting amplitude of the first peak for 160

We investigate a framework aiming to provide a common origin for the large-angle anomalies detected in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), which are hypothesized as the result of the statistical inhomogeneity developed by different isocurvature fields of mass m ∼ H present during inflation. The inhomogeneity arises as the combined effect of ( i ) the initial conditions for isocurvature fields (obtained after a fast-roll stage finishing many e -foldings before cosmological scales exit the horizon), ( ii ) their inflationary fluctuations and ( iii ) their coupling to other degrees of freedom. Our case of interest is when these fields (interpreted as the precursors of large-angle anomalies) leave an observable imprint only in isolated patches of the Universe. When the latter intersect the last scattering surface, such imprints arise in the CMB. Nevertheless, due to their statistically inhomogeneous nature, these imprints are difficult to detect, for they become hidden in the background similarly to the Cold Spot. We then compute the probability that a single isocurvature field becomes inhomogeneous at the end of inflation and find that, if the appropriate conditions are given (which depend exclusively on the preexisting fast-roll stage), this probability is at the percent level. Finally, we discuss several mechanisms (including the curvaton and the inhomogeneous reheating) to investigate whether an initial statistically inhomogeneous isocurvature field fluctuation might give rise to some of the observed anomalies. In particular, we focus on the Cold Spot, the power deficit at low multipoles and the breaking of statistical isotropy.

We show that in addition to simple scale invariance, a universe dominated by dark energy naturally gives rise to correlation functions possessing full conformal invariance. This is due to the mathematical isomorphism between the conformal group of certain three dimensional slices of de Sitter space and the de Sitter isometry group SO(4,1). In the standard homogeneous, isotropic cosmological model in which primordial density perturbations are generated during a long vacuum energy dominated de Sitter phase, the embedding of flat spatial R^3 sections in de Sitter space induces a conformal invariant perturbation spectrum and definite prediction for the shape of the non-Gaussian CMB bispectrum. In the case in which the density fluctuations are generated instead on the de Sitter horizon, conformal invariance of the S^2 horizon embedding implies a different but also quite definite prediction for the angular correlations of CMB non-Gaussianity on the sky. Each of these forms for the bispectrum is intrinsic to the sym...

Future cosmic microwave background experiments for high-resolution anisotropy mapping and polarisation detection require large arrays of bolometers at low temperature. We have developed a process to build arrays of antenna-coupled bolometers for that purpose. With adjustment of the Nb{sub x}Si{sub 1-x} alloy composition, the array can be made of high impedance or superconductive (TES) sensors.

Cosmological models with Galileon gravity are an alternative to the standard ΛCDM paradigm with testable predictions at the level of its self-accelerating solutions for the expansion history, as well as large-scale structure formation. Here, we place constraints on the full parameter space of these models using data from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) (including lensing), baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO) and the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect. We pay special attention to the ISW effect for which we use the cross-spectra, C {sub ℓ}{sup Tg}, of CMBtemperature maps and foreground galaxies from the WISE survey. The sign of C {sub ℓ}{sup Tg} is set by the time evolution of the lensing potential in the redshift range of the galaxy sample: it is positive if the potential decays (like in ΛCDM), negative if it deepens. We constrain three subsets of Galileon gravity separately known as the Cubic, Quartic and Quintic Galileons. The cubic Galileon model predicts a negative C {sub ℓ}{sup Tg} and exhibits a 7.8σ tension with the data, which effectively rules it out. For the quartic and quintic models the ISW data also rule out a significant portion of the parameter space but permit regions where the goodness-of-fit is comparable to ΛCDM. The data prefers a non zero sum of the neutrino masses (∑ m {sub ν} ≈ 0.5eV) with ∼ 5σ significance in these models. The best-fitting models have values of H {sub 0} consistent with local determinations, thereby avoiding the tension that exists in ΛCDM. We also identify and discuss a ∼ 2σ tension that Galileon gravity exhibits with recent BAO measurements. Our analysis shows overall that Galileon cosmologies cannot be ruled out by current data but future lensing, BAO and ISW data hold strong potential to do so.

Clusters of galaxies gravitationally lens the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation, resulting in a distinct imprint in the CMB on arcminute scales. Measurement of this effect offers a promising way to constrain the masses of galaxy clusters, particularly those at high redshift. We use CMB maps from the South Pole Telescope Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) survey to measure the CMB lensing signal around galaxy clusters identified in optical imaging from first year observations of the Dark Energy Survey. We detect lensing of the CMB by the galaxy clusters at 6.5$\\sigma$ significance. Using the measured lensing signal, we constrain the amplitude of the relation between cluster mass and optical richness to roughly $20\\%$ precision, finding good agreement with recent constraints obtained with galaxy lensing. The error budget is dominated by statistical noise but includes significant contributions from systematic biases due to the thermal SZ effect and cluster miscentering.

We report the performance of a bolometric system designed to measure the anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation on angular scales from 0 deg 3 min to 3 deg. The system represents a collaborative effort combining a low-background 1 m diameter balloon-borne telescope with new multimode feed optics, a beam modulation mechanism with high stability, and a four-channel bolometric receiver with passbands centered near frequencies of 3 (90), 6 (180), 9 (270), and 12 (360) cm(exp -1) (GHz). The telescope was flown three times with the bolometric receiver and has demonstrated detector noise limited performance capable of reaching sensitivity levels of Delta(T)/T(sub CMB) is approximately equal to 10(exp -5) with detectors operated at T = 0.3 K.

An as-received 316L stainless steel fiber with a diameter of 20 μm was drawn using a bundle drawing process at room temperature to form ultrafine stainless steel fibers with diameters of 12, 8, and 6 μm. The crystalline phases of the fibers were analyzed using the X-ray diffraction (XRD) profile fitting technique. The grain sizes of γ-austenite and α′-martensite were reduced to nanoscale sizes after the drawing process. XRD analysis and focused ion beam-scanning electron microscope observations showed that the newly formed α′-martensitic grains were closely arrayed in the drawing direction. The magnetic property was measured using a superconducting quantum interference device vibrating sample magnetometer. The magnetic anisotropy of the fibers was observed by applying a magnetic field parallel and perpendicular to the fiber axis. The results showed that the microstructure anisotropy including the shape anisotropy, magnetocrystalline anisotropy, and the orientation of the crystalline phases strongly contributed to the magnetic anisotropy. - Highlights: • The martensitic transformation of the 316L SS fiber occurred during the cold drawn. • The grain sizes of γ-austenite and α′-martensite were reduced to the nanoscale. • The newly formed martensitic grains were closely arrayed in the drawing direction. • The drawing process caused the magnetic easy axis to be aligned with the fiber axis. • The microstructure anisotropy strongly contributed to the magnetic anisotropy.

Here, we present a cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing map produced from a linear combination of South Pole Telescope (SPT) and Planck temperature data. The 150 GHz temperature data from the 2500 deg 2 SPT-SZ survey is combined with the Planck 143 GHz data in harmonic space to obtain a temperature map that has a broader ℓ coverage and less noise than either individual map. Using a quadratic estimator technique on this combined temperature map, we produce a map of the gravitational lensing potential projected along the line of sight. We measure the auto-spectrum of the lensing potential C L ϕϕ , and compare it to the theoretical prediction for a ΛCDM cosmology consistent with the Planck 2015 data set, finding a best-fit amplitude of 0.95 −0.06 +0.06 (stat.) −0.01 +0.01 (sys.). The null hypothesis of no lensing is rejected at a significance of 24σ. One important use of such a lensing potential map is in cross-correlations with other dark matter tracers. We demonstrate this cross-correlation in practice by calculating the cross-spectrum, C L ϕG , between the SPT+Planck lensing map and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) galaxies. We fit C L ϕG to a power law of the form p L =a(L/L 0 ) −b with a, L 0, and b fixed, and find η ϕG =C L ϕG /p L =0.94 −0.04 +0.04 , which is marginally lower, but in good agreement with η ϕG =1.00 −0.01 +0.02 , the best-fit amplitude for the cross-correlation of Planck-2015 CMB lensing and WISE galaxies over ~67% of the sky. Finally, the lensing potential map presented here will be used for cross-correlation studies with the Dark Energy Survey, whose footprint nearly completely covers the SPT 2500 deg 2 field.

There are evidences that the cosmic microwave background (CMB) large-angle anomalies imply a departure from statistical isotropy and hence from the standard cosmological model. We propose a ΛCDM model extension whose dark energy component preserves its nondynamical character but wields anisotropic vacuum pressure. Exact solutions for the cosmological scale factors are presented, upper bounds for the deformation parameter are evaluated and its value is estimated considering the elliptical universe proposal to solve the quadrupole anomaly. This model can be constructed from a Bianchi I cosmology with a cosmological constant from two different ways: (i) a straightforward anisotropic modification of the vacuum pressure consistently with energy-momentum conservation; (ii) a Poisson structure deformation between canonical momenta such that the dynamics remain invariant under scale factors rescalings

We use three domain wall simulations from the radiation era to the late-time dark energy domination era based on the PRS algorithm to calculate the energy–momentum tensor components of domain wall networks in an expanding universe. Unequal time correlators in the radiation, matter and cosmological constant epochs are calculated using the scaling regime of each of the simulations. The CMB power spectrum of a network of domain walls is determined. The first ever quantitative constraint for the domain wall surface tension is obtained using a Markov chain Monte Carlo method; an energy scale of domain walls of 0.93 MeV, which is close but below the Zel'dovich bound, is determined

We use three domain wall simulations from the radiation era to the late-time dark energy domination era based on the PRS algorithm to calculate the energy–momentum tensor components of domain wall networks in an expanding universe. Unequal time correlators in the radiation, matter and cosmological constant epochs are calculated using the scaling regime of each of the simulations. The CMB power spectrum of a network of domain walls is determined. The first ever quantitative constraint for the domain wall surface tension is obtained using a Markov chain Monte Carlo method; an energy scale of domain walls of 0.93 MeV, which is close but below the Zel'dovich bound, is determined.

F-term GUT inflation coupled to N = 1 supergravity is confronted with CMB data. Corrections to the string mass-per-unit-length away from the Bogomolny limit are taken into account. We find that a superpotential coupling 10 -7 /N∼ -2 /N, with N the dimension of the Higgs-representation, is still compatible with the data. The parameter space is enlarged in warm inflation, as well as in the curvaton and inhomogeneous reheat scenario. F-strings formed at the end of P-term inflation are also considered. Because these strings satisfy the Bogomolny bound the bounds are stronger: the gauge coupling is constrained to the range 10 -7 -4

We study the possibility of constraining the energy dependence of cosmological birefringence by using CMB polarization data. We consider four possible behaviors, characteristic of different theoretical scenarios: energy-independent birefringence motivated by Chern-Simons interactions of the electromagnetic field, linear energy dependence motivated by a 'Weyl' interaction of the electromagnetic field, quadratic energy dependence, motivated by quantum gravity modifications of low-energy electrodynamics, and inverse quadratic dependence, motivated by Faraday rotation generated by primordial magnetic fields. We constrain the parameters associated to each kind of dependence and use our results to give constraints on the models mentioned. We forecast the sensitivity that Planck data will be able to achieve in this respect

The lack of power on large scales (l CMB 2-point function power at low l, finding that the potential derived from string loops is not steep enough for this purpose. We introduce a steeper contribution to the potential, that dominates away from the inflationary region, and show that if properly tuned it can indeed lead to a spectrum with lack of power at large scales.

In loop quantum cosmology, the universe avoids a big bang singularity and undergoes an early and short super-inflation phase. During super-inflation, non-perturbative quantum corrections to the dynamics drive an inflaton field up its potential hill, thus setting the initial conditions for standard inflation. We show that this effect can raise the inflaton high enough to achieve sufficient e-foldings in the standard inflation era. We analyse the cosmological perturbations generated when slow-roll is violated after super-inflation and show that loop quantum effects can in principle leave an indirect signature on the largest scales in the CMB, with some loss of power and running of the spectral index

We present a detailed and self-contained analytical derivation of the evolution of sub-horizon cosmological perturbations before decoupling, based on previous work by S. Weinberg. These solutions are valid in the minimal LCDM scenario, to first order in perturbation theory, in the tight-coupling limit and neglecting neutrino shear stress. We compare them to exact numerical solutions computed by a Boltzmann code, and we find the two to be in very good agreement. The analytic solutions show explicitly that CDM and the baryon-photon fluid effectively behave as separate self-gravitating fluids until the epoch of baryon drag. This in turn leads to the surprising conclusion that the CMB is much less sensitive to the clustering properties of minimally coupled Dark Matter models than what would be naively expected.

Full Text Available We use three domain wall simulations from the radiation era to the late-time dark energy domination era based on the PRS algorithm to calculate the energy–momentum tensor components of domain wall networks in an expanding universe. Unequal time correlators in the radiation, matter and cosmological constant epochs are calculated using the scaling regime of each of the simulations. The CMB power spectrum of a network of domain walls is determined. The first ever quantitative constraint for the domain wall surface tension is obtained using a Markov chain Monte Carlo method; an energy scale of domain walls of 0.93 MeV, which is close but below the Zel'dovich bound, is determined.

Cosmic Microwave Background satellite missions as the on-going Planck experiment are expected to provide the strongest constraints on a wide set of cosmological parameters. Those constraints, however, could be weakened when the assumption of a cosmological constant as the dark energy component is removed. Here we show that it will indeed be the case when there exists a coupling among the dark energy and the dark matter fluids. In particular, the expected errors on key parameters as the cold dark matter density and the angular diameter distance at decoupling are significantly larger when a dark coupling is introduced. We show that it will be the case also for future satellite missions as EPIC, unless CMB lensing extraction is performed.

The lowermost few hundred kilometres of the Earth's mantle-known as D″-form the boundary between it and the core below, control the Earth's convective system, and are the site of probable large thermochemical heterogeneity. Seismic observations of D″ show a large (~2%) increase in S-wave velocity and significant seismic anisotropy (the variation of wave speed with direction) are present in many parts of the region. On the basis of continuous regions of fast shear velocity (V S) anomalies in global models, it is also proposed as the resting place of subducted slabs, notably the Farallon beneath North America. The MgSiO3-post-perovskite mineral phase is the most compelling explanation for observations of anisotropy, though an outstanding question is how post-perovskite and other mineral phases may deform to produce this: different mechanisms are possible. With knowledge either of mantle flow or which slip system is responsible for causing deformation, we can determine the other with the seismic anisotropy which is created. We investigate the dynamics at the CMB beneath North America using differential shear wave splitting in S and ScS phases from earthquakes of magnitude MW > 5.5 in South and Central America, Hawaii the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and East Pacific Rise. They are detected on ~500 stations in North America, giving ~700 measurements of anisotropy in D″. We achieve this by correcting for anisotropy in the upper mantle (UM) beneath both the source and receiver. The measurements cover three regions beneath western USA, the Yucatan peninsula and Florida. In each case, two different, crossing ray paths are used, so that the style of anisotropy can be constrained-only one azimuth cannot distinguish differing cases. Our results showing ~1% anisotropy dependent on azimuth are not consistent with transverse isotropy with a vertical symmetry axis (VTI) anywhere. The same but with a tilted axis is possible (TTI) and would be consistent with inclusions of seismically

Delensing, the removal of the limiting lensing B -mode background, is crucial for the success of future cosmic microwave background (CMB) surveys in constraining inflationary gravitational waves (IGWs). In recent work, delensing with large-scale structure tracers has emerged as a promising method both for improving constraints on IGWs and for testing delensing methods for future use. However, the delensing fractions (i.e., the fraction of the lensing-B mode power removed) achieved by recent efforts have been only 20%-30%. In this work, we provide a detailed characterization of a full-sky, dust-cleaned cosmic infrared background (CIB) map for delensing and construct a further-improved delensing template by adding additional tracers to increase delensing performance. In particular, we build a multitracer delensing template by combining the dust-cleaned Planck CIB map with a reconstructed CMB lensing map from Planck and a galaxy number density map from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite. For this combination, we calculate the relevant weightings by fitting smooth templates to measurements of all the cross-spectra and autospectra of these maps. On a large fraction of the sky (fsky=0.43 ), we demonstrate that our maps are capable of providing a delensing factor of 43 ±1 % ; using a more restrictive mask (fsky=0.11 ), the delensing factor reaches 48 ±1 % . For low-noise surveys, our delensing maps, which cover much of the sky, can thus improve constraints on the tensor-to-scalar ratio (r ) by nearly a factor of 2. The delensing tracer maps are made publicly available, and we encourage their use in ongoing and upcoming B -mode surveys.

The rheological structure of the lithosphere-asthenosphere system controls the degree in which the mantle drives surface motions. Seismic anisotropy is a proxy to infer information about previous tectonic events imprinted in lithospheric structures and/or asthenospheric flow pattern in regions absent of active volcanism, however, distinguishing between the shallow and deeper sources, respectively, remains ambiguous. Madagascar is an ideal natural laboratory to study the sources of anisotropy and the rheological implications for lithosphere-asthenosphere system because 1) active volcanism is minimal or absent, 2) there are well-exposed tectonic fabrics for comparison, and 3) numerous geological and geophysical observations provides evidence of present-day tectonic activities. Recent studies suggest new seismic anisotropy observations in southern Madagascar are sourced from both fossilized lithospheric structure and asthenospheric flow driven by rigid lithospheric plate motion. In this work we compare geodynamic simulations of the lithosphere-asthenosphere system with seismic anisotropy data set that includes all of Madagascar. We use the numerical code Advanced Solver for Problems in Earth's ConvecTion (ASPECT) to calculate instantaneous deformation in the lithosphere and edge-driven convective flow in the asthenosphere accounting for variations in buoyancy forces and temperature dependent viscosity. The initial temperature conditions are based on interpretations from high resolution regional surface wave tomography. We assume visco-plastic rheology for a uniform crust, dislocation creep for a laterally varying mantle lithospheric structure, and diffusion creep for the asthenosphere. To test for the source of anisotropy we compare our velocity solution azimuths with azimuths of anisotropy at 25 km depth intervals. Calculated asthenospheric flow aligns with measured seismic anisotropy with a 15° WRMS at 175 km depth and possibly down to 250 km suggesting the

Based on the evaluation of the properties of crystals, such as surface energy and its anisotropy, the surface melting temperature, the anisotropy of the work function of the electron, and the anisotropy of adsorption, were shown the advantages of the model of coordination melting (MCM) in calculating the surface properties of crystals. The model of coordination melting makes it possible to calculate with an acceptable accuracy the specific surface energy of the crystals, the anisotropy of the surface energy, the habit of the natural crystals, the temperature of surface melting of the crystal, the anisotropy of the electron work function and the anisotropy of the adhesive properties of single-crystal surfaces. The advantage of our model is the simplicity of evaluating the surface properties of the crystal based on the data given in the reference literature. In this case, there is no need for a complex mathematical tool, which is used in calculations using quantum chemistry or modeling by molecular dynamics.

LCDM is a strikingly successful paradigm to explain the CMBanisotropy and its evolution into observed galaxy clustering statistics. The formation and evolution of galaxies within this context is more complex and only partly characterized. Measurements of the average star formation and its precursors over cosmic time are required to connect theories of galaxy evolution to LCDM evolution. The fine structure transition in CII at 158 um traces star formation rates and the ISM radiation environment. Cold, molecular gas fuels star formation and is traced well by a ladder of CO emission lines. Catalogs of emission lines in individual galaxies have provided the most information about CII and CO to-date but are subject to selection effects. Intensity mapping is an alternative approach to measuring line emission. It surveys the sum of all line radiation as a function of redshift, and requires angular resolution to reach cosmologically interesting scales, but not to resolve individual sources. It directly measures moments of the luminosity function from all emitting objects. Intensity mapping of CII and CO can perform an unbiased census of stars and cold gas across cosmic time. We will use archival COBE-FIRAS and Planck data to bound or measure cosmologically redshifted CII and CO line emission through 1) the monopole spectrum, 2) cross-power between FIRAS/Planck and public galaxy survey catalogs from BOSS and the 2MASS redshift surveys, 3) auto-power of the FIRAS/Planck data itself. FIRAS is unique in its spectral range and all-sky coverage, provided by the space-borne FTS architecture. In addition to sensitivity to a particular emission line, intensity mapping is sensitive to all other contributions to surface brightness. We will remove CMB and foreground spatial and spectral templates using models from WMAP and Planck data. Interlopers and residual foregrounds additively bias the auto-power and monopole, but both can still be used to provide rigorous upper bounds. The

In standard general relativity the universe cannot be started with arbitrary initial conditions, because four of the ten components of the Einstein's field equations (EFE) are constraints on initial conditions. In the previous work it was proposed to extend the gravity theory to allow free initial conditions, with a motivation to solve the cosmological constant problem. This was done by setting four constraints on metric variations in the action principle, which is reasonable because the gravity's physical degrees of freedom are at most six. However, there are two problems about this theory; the three constraints in addition to the unimodular condition were introduced without clear physical meanings, and the flat Minkowski spacetime is unstable against perturbations. Here a new set of gravitational field equations is derived by replacing the three constraints with new ones requiring that geodesic paths remain geodesic against metric variations. The instability problem is then naturally solved. Implications for the cosmological constant Λ are unchanged; the theory converges into EFE with nonzero Λ by inflation, but Λ varies on scales much larger than the present Hubble horizon. Then galaxies are formed only in small Λ regions, and the cosmological constant problem is solved by the anthropic argument. Because of the increased degrees of freedom in metric dynamics, the theory predicts new non-oscillatory modes of metric anisotropy generated by quantum fluctuation during inflation, and CMB B -mode polarization would be observed differently from the standard predictions by general relativity.

Full Text Available Magnetic anisotropy plays an important role in determining the magnetic functionality of thin film based electronic devices. We present here, the first systematic study of the correlation between magnetoresistance (MR response in organic spin valves (OSVs and magnetic anisotropy of the bottom ferromagnetic electrode over a wide temperature range (10 K–350 K. The magnetic anisotropy of a La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 (LSMO film epitaxially grown on a SrTiO3 (STO substrate was manipulated by reducing film thickness from 200 nm to 20 nm. Substrate-induced compressive strain was shown to drastically increase the bulk in-plane magnetic anisotropy when the LSMO became thinner. In contrast, the MR response of LSMO/OSC/Co OSVs for many organic semiconductors (OSCs does not depend on either the in-plane magnetic anisotropy of the LSMO electrodes or their bulk magnetization. All the studied OSV devices show a similar temperature dependence of MR, indicating a similar temperature-dependent spinterface effect irrespective of LSMO thickness, resulting from the orbital hybridization of carriers at the OSC/LSMO interface.

In this paper we develop a novel needlet-based estimator to investigate the cross-correlation between cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing maps and large-scale structure (LSS) data. We compare this estimator with its harmonic counterpart and, in particular, we analyze the bias effects of different forms of masking. In order to address this bias, we also implement a MASTER-like technique in the needlet case. The resulting estimator turns out to have an extremely good signal-to-noise performance. Our analysis aims at expanding and optimizing the operating domains in CMB-LSS cross-correlation studies, similarly to CMB needlet data analysis. It is motivated especially by next generation experiments (such as Euclid) which will allow us to derive much tighter constraints on cosmological and astrophysical parameters through cross-correlation measurements between CMB and LSS.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The photons of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) stream toward us from the boundary of the observable universe and arrive with information about both their point...

The coming flood of cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization experiments, spurred by the recent detection of CMB polarization by the DASI and WMAP instruments, will be confronted by many new analysis tasks specific to polarization. For the analysis of CMB polarization data sets, the devil is truly in the details. With this in mind, we present details of the data analysis for the POLAR experiment, which recently led to the tightest upper limits on the polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation at large angular scales. We discuss the data selection process, map-making algorithms, offset removal, and likelihood analysis which were used to find upper limits on the polarization. Stated using the modern convention for reporting CMB Stokes parameters, these limits are 5.0 μK on both E- and B-type polarization at 95% confidence. Finally, we discuss simulations used to test our analysis techniques and to probe the fundamental limitations of the experiment

Fully kinetic analytic calculations of an initially Maxwellian distribution with arbitrary density and temperature gradients exhibit the development of temperatureanisotropies and magnetic field growth associated with the Biermann battery. The calculation, performed by taking a small order expansion of the ratio of the Debye length to the gradient scale, predicts anisotropies and magnetic fields as a function of space given an arbitrary temperature and density profile. These predictions are shown to qualitatively match the values measured from particle-in-cell simulations, where the development of the Weibel instability occurs at the same location and with a wavenumber aligned with the predicted temperatureanisotropy.

Amorphous Nd-Co thin films exhibit stripe shaped periodic magnetic domains with local out-of-plane magnetization components due to their perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. This anisotropy has been quantified in a fairly simple way by reproducing the experimental magnetization curves by means of micromagnetic numerical simulations. The simulations show that the first (K1) and second (K2) anisotropy constants must be used to properly describe the variation of the stripe domains with the in plane applied magnetic field. A strong temperature dependence of both K1 and K2 has been obtained between 10 K and room temperature. This anisotropy behavior is characteristic of two magnetically coupled 3d-4f sublattices with competing anisotropies.

In this work the magnetic anisotropies of the diluted magnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As were investigated experimentally. (Ga,Mn)As films show a superposition of various magnetic anisotropies which depend sensitively on various parameters such as temperature, carrier concentration or lattice strain. However, the anisotropies of lithographically prepared (Ga,Mn)As elements differ significantly from an unpatterned (Ga,Mn)As film. In stripe-shaped structures this behaviour is caused by anisotropic relaxation of the compressive lattice strain. In order to determine the magnetic anisotropies of individual (Ga,Mn)As nanostructures a combination of ferromagnetic resonance and time-resolved scanning Kerr microscopy was employed in this thesis. In addition, local changes of the magnetic anisotropy in circular and rectangular structures were visualized by making use of spatially resolved measurements. Finally, also the influence of the laterally inhomogeneous magnetic anisotropies on the static magnetic properties, such as coercive fields, was investigated employing spatially resolved static MOKE measurements on individual (Ga,Mn)As elements. (orig.)

We formulate a theory for transfer phenomena in a plasma with developed ion-sound turbulence. A transfer anisotropy effect caused by a temperature gradient is revealed. The corresponding fluxes transverse to the effective force vector (1) which generates the turbulence turn out to be considerably larger than the longitudinal fluxes in a plasma with a relatively small degree of nonisothermality. For a strongly nonisothermal plasma a suppression of the transverse fluxes takes place and corresponds to a growth of the thermal insulation of the current-carrying plasma filaments

We present results from two four-frequency observations centered near the stars Sigma Herculis and Iota Draconis during the fourth flight of the Millimeter-wave Anisotropy eXperiment (MAX). The observations were made of 6 deg x 0.6 deg strips of the sky with a 1.4 deg peak to peak sinusoidal chop in all bands. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) beam sizes were calculated 0.55 deg +/- 0.05 deg at 3.5/cm and a 0.75 deg +/- 0.05 deg at 6, 9, and 14/cm. Significant correlated structures were observed at 3.5, 6, and 9/cm. The spectra of these signals are inconsistent with thermal emission from known interstellar dust populations. The extrapolated amplitudes of synchrotron and free-free emission are too small to account for the amplitude of the observed structures. If the observed structures are attributed to cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy with a Gaussian autocorrelation function and a coherence angle of 25 min, then the most probable values at Delta T/T(sub CMB) = 3.1 (sup +1.7 sub -1.3) x 10(exp -5) for the Sigma Herculis scan, and Delta T/T(sub CMB) = 3.3(sup +1.1 sub -1.1) x 10(exp -5) for the Iota Draconis scan (95% confidence upper, lower limits).

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarimeter (ACTPol) is a polarization sensitive upgrade to the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, located at an elevation of 5190 m on Cerro Toco in Chile. ACTPol uses transition edge sensor bolometers coupled to orthomode transducers to measure both the temperature and polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). Calibration of the detector angles is a critical step in producing polarization maps of the CMB. Polarization angle offsets in the detector calibration can cause leakage in polarization from E to B modes and induce a spurious signal in the EB and TB cross correlations, which eliminates our ability to measure potential cosmological sources of EB and TB signals, such as cosmic birefringence. We calibrate the ACTPol detector angles by ray tracing the designed detector angle through the entire optical chain to determine the projection of each detector angle on the sky. The distribution of calibrated detector polarization angles are consistent with a global offset angle from zero when compared to the EB-nulling offset angle, the angle required to null the EB cross-correlation power spectrum. We present the optical modeling process. The detector angles can be cross checked through observations of known polarized sources, whether this be a galactic source or a laboratory reference standard. To cross check the ACTPol detector angles, we use a thin film polarization grid placed in front of the receiver of the telescope, between the receiver and the secondary reflector. Making use of a rapidly rotating half-wave plate (HWP) mount we spin the polarizing grid at a constant speed, polarizing and rotating the incoming atmospheric signal. The resulting sinusoidal signal is used to determine the detector angles. The optical modeling calibration was shown to be consistent with a global offset angle of zero when compared to EB nulling in the first ACTPol results and will continue to be a part of our calibration implementation. The first

Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is an important probe for understanding the inflationary era of the Universe. We consider the Perturbed Power Law (PPL) model of inflation which is a soft deviation from Power Law (PL) inflationary model. This model captures the effect of higher order derivative of Hubble parameter during inflation, which in turn leads to a non-zero effective mass m eff for the inflaton field. The higher order derivatives of Hubble parameter at leading order sources constant difference in the spectral index for scalar and tensor perturbation going beyond PL model of inflation. PPL model have two observable independent parameters, namely spectral index for tensor perturbation ν t and change in spectral index for scalar perturbation ν st to explain the observed features in the scalar and tensor power spectrum of perturbation. From the recent measurements of CMB power spectra by WMAP, Planck and BICEP-2 for temperature and polarization, we estimate the feasibility of PPL model with standard ΛCDM model. Although BICEP-2 claimed a detection of r=0.2, estimates of dust contamination provided by Planck have left open the possibility that only upper bound on r will be expected in a joint analysis. As a result we consider different upper bounds on the value of r and show that PPL model can explain a lower value of tensor to scalar ratio (r<0.1 or r<0.01) for a scalar spectral index of n s =0.96 by having a non-zero value of effective mass of the inflaton field m 2 eff /H 2 . The analysis with WP + Planck likelihood shows a non-zero detection of m 2 eff /H 2 with 5.7 σ and 8.1 σ respectively for r<0.1 and r<0.01. Whereas, with BICEP-2 likelihood m 2 eff /H 2 = −0.0237 ± 0.0135 which is consistent with zero

We study the CMB observables in axion monodromy inflation. These well-motivated scenarios for inflation in string theory have monomial potentials over super-Planckian field ranges, with superimposed sinusoidal modulations from instanton effects. Such periodic modulations of the potential can drive resonant enhancements of the correlation functions of cosmological perturbations, with characteristic modulations of the amplitude as a function of wavenumber. We give an analytical result for the scalar power spectrum in this class of models, and we determine the limits that present data places on the amplitude and frequency of modulations. Then, incorporating an improved understanding of the realization of axion monodromy inflation in string theory, we perform a careful study of microphysical constraints in this scenario. We find that detectable modulations of the scalar power spectrum are commonplace in well-controlled examples, while resonant contributions to the bispectrum are undetectable in some classes of examples and detectable in others. We conclude that resonant contributions to the spectrum and bispectrum are a characteristic signature of axion monodromy inflation that, in favorable cases, could be detected in near-future experiments.

In this follow-up work to the High Energy Physics Community Summer Study 2013 (HEP CSS 2013, a.k.a. Snowmass), we explore the scientific capabilities of a future Stage-IV Cosmic Microwave Background polarization experiment (CMB-S4) under various assumptions on detector count, resolution, and sky coverage. We use the Fisher matrix technique to calculate the expected uncertainties in cosmological parameters in vΛCDM that are especially relevant to the physics of fundamental interactions, including neutrino masses, effective number of relativistic species, dark-energy equation of state, dark-matter annihilation, and inflationary parameters. To further chart the landscape of future cosmology probes, we include forecasted results from the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) signal as measured by DESI to constrain parameters that would benefit from low redshift information. We find the following best 1-σ constraints: σ(Mv ) = 15 meV, σ(Neff ) = 0.0156, Dark energy Figure of Merit = 303, σ(pann) = 0.00588 x 3 x 10-26 cm3/s/GeV, σ( ΩK) = 0.00074, σ(ns) = 0.00110, σ( αs) = 0.00145, and σ(r) = 0.00009. We also detail the dependences of the parameter constraints on detector count, resolution, and sky coverage.

The cosmic microwave background provides constraints on the annihilation and decay of light dark matter at redshifts between 100 and 1000, the strength of which depends upon the fraction of energy ending up in the form of electrons and photons. The resulting constraints are usually presented for a limited selection of annihilation and decay channels. Here we provide constraints on the annihilation cross section and decay rate, at discrete values of the dark matter mass m{sub χ}, for all the annihilation and decay channels whose secondary spectra have been computed using PYTHIA in arXiv:1012.4515 (''PPPC 4 DM ID: a poor particle physicist cookbook for dark matter indirect detection''), namely e, μ, τ, V → e, V → μ, V → τ, u, d s, c, b, t, γ, g, W, Z and h. By interpolating in mass, these can be used to find the CMB constraints and likelihood functions from WMAP7 and Planck for a wide range of dark matter models, including those with annihilation or decay into a linear combination of different channels.

The cosmic microwave background provides constraints on the annihilation and decay of light dark matter at redshifts between 100 and 1000, the strength of which depends upon the fraction of energy ending up in the form of electrons and photons. The resulting constraints are usually presented for a limited selection of annihilation and decay channels. Here we provide constraints on the annihilation cross section and decay rate, at discrete values of the dark matter mass m χ , for all the annihilation and decay channels whose secondary spectra have been computed using PYTHIA in arXiv:1012.4515 (''PPPC 4 DM ID: a poor particle physicist cookbook for dark matter indirect detection''), namely e, μ, τ, V → e, V → μ, V → τ, u, d s, c, b, t, γ, g, W, Z and h. By interpolating in mass, these can be used to find the CMB constraints and likelihood functions from WMAP7 and Planck for a wide range of dark matter models, including those with annihilation or decay into a linear combination of different channels

In this follow-up work to the High Energy Physics Community Summer Study 2013 (HEP CSS 2013, a.k.a. Snowmass), we explore the scientific capabilities of a future Stage-IV Cosmic Microwave Background polarization experiment (CMB-S4) under various assumptions on detector count, resolution, and sky coverage. We use the Fisher matrix technique to calculate the expected uncertainties in cosmological parameters in vΛCDM that are especially relevant to the physics of fundamental interactions, including neutrino masses, effective number of relativistic species, dark-energy equation of state, dark-matter annihilation, and inflationary parameters. To further chart the landscape of future cosmology probes, we include forecasted results from the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) signal as measured by DESI to constrain parameters that would benefit from low redshift information. We find the following best 1-δ constraints: δ(M_v ) = 15 meV, δ(N_e_f_f ) = 0.0156, Dark energy Figure of Merit = 303, δ(p_a_n_n) = 0.00588 x 3 x 10"-"2"6 cm"3/s/GeV, δ(Ω_K) = 0.00074, δ(n_s) = 0.00110, δ(α_s) = 0.00145, and δ(r) = 0.00009. We also detail the dependences of the parameter constraints on detector count, resolution, and sky coverage.

"Brane Supersymmetry Breaking" is a peculiar string-scale mechanism that can unpair Bose and Fermi excitations in orientifold models. It results from the simultaneous presence, in the vacuum, of collections of D-branes and orientifolds that are not mutually BPS, and is closely tied to the scale of string excitations. It also leaves behind, for a mixing of dilaton and internal breathing mode, an exponential potential that is just too steep for a scalar to emerge from the initial singularity while descending it. As a result, in this class of models the scalar can generically bounce off the exponential wall, and this dynamics brings along, in the power spectrum, an infrared depression typically followed by a pre-inflationary peak. We elaborate on a possible link between this type of bounce and the low-$\\ell$ end of the CMB angular power spectrum. For the first 32 multipoles, one can reach a 50 % reduction in $\\chi^{\\,2}$ with respect to the standard $\\Lambda$CDM setting.

We present our recent measurements on the anisotropy ratios of MgB 2 single crystals. Our measurements indicate that the anisotropy ratios of the penetration depth and of the upper critical field have different magnitudes and temperature dependences, as predicted by theoretical calculations. These results imply that the two-gap nature can strongly influence the superconducting properties of MgB 2

Experimental data on the magnetocrystalline anisotropy in Co, YCo5, GdCo5, SmCo5 and Y2Co17 is analysed using a single-ion crystal field and isotropic exchange interaction. The large magnetic anisotropy at high temperatures in the alloys is due to significant deviations in the alloy lattices...

Full Text Available The analized material was high alumina low cement castable sintered at three different temperatures. Influence of initial material anisotropy on the thermal shock resistance as well as changes of anisotropy level during the thermal shock were studied. Water quench test was used as an experimental method for the thermal stability testing. Surface anisotropy was analysed by image analysis and structural anisotropy using ultrasonic measurements. The results pointed out that the highest homogeinity and the lowest surface and structural anisotropy was for the samples sintered at 1600ºC. Surface anistoropy had prevailing infuence on behavior of material during the thermal shock, but the structural anisotropy should not be neglected. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. TR 33007

We calculate how the relic density of dark matter particles is altered when their annihilation is enhanced by the Sommerfeld mechanism due to a Yukawa interaction between the annihilating particles. Maintaining a dark matter abundance consistent with current observational bounds requires the normalization of the s-wave annihilation cross section to be decreased compared to a model without enhancement. The level of suppression depends on the specific parameters of the particle model, with the kinetic decoupling temperature having the most effect. We find that the cross section can be reduced by as much as an order of magnitude for extreme cases. We also compute the μ-type distortion of the CMB energy spectrum caused by energy injection from such Sommerfeld-enhanced annihilation. Our results indicate that in the vicinity of resonances, associated with bound states, distortions can be large enough to be excluded by the upper limit |μ|≤9.0x10 -5 found by the FIRAS (Far Infrared Absolute Spectrophotometer) instrument on the COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer) satellite.

We cross-correlate the positions of damped Lyman-α systems (DLAs) and their parent quasar catalog with a convergence map derived from the Planck cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature data. We make consistent measurements of the lensing signal of both samples in both Fourier and configuration space. By interpreting the excess signal present in the DLA catalog with respect to the parent quasar catalog as caused by the large scale structure traced by DLAs, we are able to infer the bias of these objects: bDLA=2.6±0.9. These results are consistent with previous measurements made in cross-correlation with the Lyman-α forest, although the current noise in the lensing data and the low number density of DLAs limits the constraining power of this measurement. We discuss the robustness of the analysis with respect to a number different systematic effects and forecast prospects of carrying out this measurement with data from future experiments.

The extensive search for deviations from Gaussianity in cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) data is very important due to the information about the very early moments of the universe encoded there. Recent analyses from Planck CMB data do not exclude the presence of non-Gaussianity of small amplitude, although they are consistent with the Gaussian hypothesis. The use of different techniques is essential to provide information about types and amplitudes of non-Gaussianities in the CMB data. In particular, we find interesting to construct an estimator based upon the combination of two powerful statistical tools that appears to be sensitive enough to detect tiny deviations from Gaussianity in CMB maps. This estimator combines the Minkowski functionals with a Neural Network, maximizing a tool widely used to study non-Gaussian signals with a reinforcement of another tool designed to identify patterns in a data set. We test our estimator by analyzing simulated CMB maps contaminated with different amounts of local primordial non-Gaussianity quantified by the dimensionless parameter f{sub NL}. We apply it to these sets of CMB maps and find ∼> 98% of chance of positive detection, even for small intensity local non-Gaussianity like f{sub NL} = 38±18, the current limit from Planck data for large angular scales. Additionally, we test the suitability to distinguish between primary and secondary non-Gaussianities: first we train the Neural Network with two sets, one of nearly Gaussian CMB maps (|f{sub NL}| ≤ 10) but contaminated with realistic inhomogeneous Planck noise (i.e., secondary non-Gaussianity) and the other of non-Gaussian CMB maps, that is, maps endowed with weak primordial non-Gaussianity (28 ≤ f{sub NL} ≤ 48); after that we test an ensemble composed of CMB maps either with one of these non-Gaussian contaminations, and find out that our method successfully classifies ∼ 95% of the tested maps as being CMB maps containing primordial or

Advances in theory that explain the magnetic behavior as function of temperature for two phase nanocrystalline soft magnetic materials are presented. The theory developed is based on the well known random anisotropy model, which includes the crystalline exchange stiffness and anisotropy energies in both amorphous and crystalline phases. The phenomenological behavior of the coercivity was obtained in the temperature range between the amorphous phase Curie temperature and the crystalline phase one.

The aim of this work was to examine, by use of XMCD-effect and additional measurements with SQUID-magnetometer, spin moments and hysteresis loops, but also to clarify the intrinsic properties like magnetocrystalline anisotropy, magnetic dipole term, and the nearly quenched orbital moment. The XMCD-measurements were done at the Cr L{sub 2,3}- and the O K-edge. The results for CrO{sub 2} show a strong dependence of the orbital, the sum of spin moment and magnetic dipole term, and the magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy from the angle between rutile a- and c-axis. Even more than the complete orbital moment, two separable and different spectral features show strong alterations of the different orbital moments. In a second part of this work the temperature dependence was investigated. The aim was to clarify the origin of the orbital moment, dipole term, and MAE in dependence of the spin moment and compare the results to different theoretical models. The extracted orbital moments and the magnetic dipole term show the same temperature dependence as the spin moment. In the following a dependence of the squared measured spin moment could be found for the MAE. For the first time the magnetic dipole term could be identified as the reason of the magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy. A strong Cr-O hybridisation was found, which shows in a similar structure and temperature dependence of the orbital moments for Cr L{sub 2,3} and the XMCD effect at O-K edge. (orig.)

The mean energy of muons at sea level is ∼4 GeV with a rel- .... of decays of mesons and muons work against each other resulting in temperature coef- ..... The mean muon rate of 16 modules measured every 15 min for one week interval from .... 4. 8. 12. 16. 20. 24. Hours. Figure 12. Solar diurnal anisotropy measured in ...

Magnetic interaction between ultrafine particles may result in superferromagnetism, i.e., ordering of the magnetic moments of particles which would be superparamagnetic if they were noninteracting. In this article we discuss the influence of the magnetic anisotropy on the temperature dependence o...

Seismic anisotropy has been found in many regions of the Earth's interior. Its presence in the Earth's crust has been known since the 19th century, and is due in part to the alignment of anisotropic crystals in rocks, and in part to patterns in the distribution of fractures and pores. In the upper mantle, seismic anisotropy was discovered 50 years ago, and can be attributed for the most part, to the alignment of intrinsically anisotropic olivine crystals during large scale deformation associated with convection. There is some indication for anisotropy in the transition zone, particularly in the vicinity of subducted slabs. Here we focus on the deep Earth - the lower mantle and core, where anisotropy is not yet mapped in detail, nor is there consensus on its origin. Most of the lower mantle appears largely isotropic, except in the last 200-300 km, in the D″ region, where evidence for seismic anisotropy has been accumulating since the late 1980s, mostly from shear wave splitting measurements. Recently, a picture has been emerging, where strong anisotropy is associated with high shear velocities at the edges of the large low shear velocity provinces (LLSVPs) in the central Pacific and under Africa. These observations are consistent with being due to the presence of highly anisotropic MgSiO3 post-perovskite crystals, aligned during the deformation of slabs impinging on the core-mantle boundary, and upwelling flow within the LLSVPs. We also discuss mineral physics aspects such as ultrahigh pressure deformation experiments, first principles calculations to obtain information about elastic properties, and derivation of dislocation activity based on bonding characteristics. Polycrystal plasticity simulations can predict anisotropy but models are still highly idealized and neglect the complex microstructure of polyphase aggregates with strong and weak components. A promising direction for future progress in understanding the origin of seismic anisotropy in the deep mantle

We discuss the cosmological implications of the new constraints on the power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy derived from a new high-resolution analysis of the MAXIMA-1 measurement. The power spectrum indicates excess power at lsimilar to 860 over the average level of power at 411 less than or equal to l less than or equal to 785. This excess is statistically significant at the similar to 95 percent confidence level. Its position coincides with that of the third acoustic peak, as predicted by generic inflationary models selected to fit the first acoustic peak as observed in the data. The height of the excess power agrees with the predictions of a family of inflationary models with cosmological parameters that are fixed to fit the CMB data previously provided by BOOMERANG-LDB and MAXIMA-1 experiments. Our results therefore lend support for inflationary models and more generally for the dominance of adiabatic coherent perturbations in the structure formation of the universe. At the same time, they seem to disfavor a large variety of the nonstandard (but inflation-based) models that have been proposed to improve the quality of fits to the CMB data and the consistency with other cosmological observables. Within standard inflationary models, our results combined with the COBE/Differential Microwave Radiometer data give best-fit values and 95 percent confidence limits for the baryon density, Omega (b)h(2)similar or equal to 0.033 +/- 0.013, and the total density, Omega =0.9(-0.16)(+0.18). The primordial spectrum slope (n(s)) and the optical depth to the last scattering surface (tau (c)) are found to be degenerate and to obey the relation n(s) similar or equal to (0.99 +/- 0.14) + 0.46tau (c), for tau (c) less than or equal to 0.5 (all at 95 percent confidence levels)

We use statistical inference theory to explore the constraints from future galaxy weak lensing (cosmic shear) surveys combined with the current CMB constraints on cosmological parameters, focusing particularly on the running of the spectral index of the primordial scalar power spectrum, α s . Recent papers have drawn attention to the possibility of measuring α s by combining the CMB with galaxy clustering and/or the Lyman-α forest. Weak lensing combined with the CMB provides an alternative probe of the primordial power spectrum. We run a series of simulations with variable runnings and compare them to semianalytic nonlinear mappings to test their validity for our calculations. We find that a 'reference' cosmic shear survey with f sky =0.01 and 6.6x10 8 galaxies per steradian can reduce the uncertainty on n s and α s by roughly a factor of 2 relative to the CMB alone. We investigate the effect of shear calibration biases on lensing by including the calibration factor as a parameter, and show that for our reference survey, the precision of cosmological parameter determination is only slightly degraded even if the amplitude calibration is uncertain by as much as 5%. We conclude that in the near future weak lensing surveys can supplement the CMB observations to constrain the primordial power spectrum

Clusters of galaxies gravitationally lens the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation, resulting in a distinct imprint in the CMB on arcminute scales. Measurement of this effect offers a promising way to constrain the masses of galaxy clusters, particularly those at high redshift. We use CMB maps from the South Pole Telescope Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) survey to measure the CMB lensing signal around galaxy clusters identified in optical imaging from first year observations of the Dark Energy Survey. The cluster catalogue used in this analysis contains 3697 members with mean redshift of \\bar{z} = 0.45. We detect lensing of the CMB by the galaxy clusters at 8.1σ significance. Using the measured lensing signal, we constrain the amplitude of the relation between cluster mass and optical richness to roughly 17 {per cent} precision, finding good agreement with recent constraints obtained with galaxy lensing. The error budget is dominated by statistical noise but includes significant contributions from systematic biases due to the thermal SZ effect and cluster miscentring.

A study of the crystal structure and the magnetic properties, especially the magnetocrystalline anisotropy of (Sm 1-x Y x ) 2 Fe 17 N y compounds (x = 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1.0, 2 2 Zn 17 - or Th 2 Ni 17 -type structure as the original compounds. The Curie temperatures decrease from 750 to 700 K as x increases from 0 to 1. The anisotropy field decreases linearly with increasing yttrium content. The spin reorientation has been investigated by means of high field magnetization measurements, AC-susceptibility measurements and thermomagnetic analysis, combined with X-ray diffraction. The anisotropy constants K 1 , K 2 and K 3 were derived by a phenomenological analysis, using magnetization curves measured in high fields, applied perpendicular to the alignment direction of the powder samples. A tentative spin phase diagram of the series is presented. (orig.)

We study phenomenologically the role of anisotropy in ferromagnetic superconductors UGe{sub 2}, URhGe, and UCoGe for the description of their phase diagrams. We use the Ginzburg–Landau free energy in its uniform form as we will consider only spatially independent solutions. This is an expansion of previously derived results where the effect of Cooper-pair and crystal anisotropies is not taken into account. The three compounds are separately discussed with the special stress on UGe{sub 2}. The main effect comes from the strong uniaxial anisotropy of magnetization while the anisotropy of Cooper pairs and crystal anisotropy only slightly change the phase diagram in the vicinity of Curie temperature. The limitations of this approach are also discussed. - Highlights: • Anisotropic Landau energy for description of ferromagnetic superconductors is proposed. • Meissner phases are described with their existence and stability conditions. • The application of the model to UGe{sub 2} is discussed. • The limitations to apply the model for description of experimental data are explained.

We present a novel approach to test the consistency of the cosmological models with multiband CMB data using a nonparametric approach. In our analysis we calibrate the REACT (Risk Estimation and Adaptation after Coordinate Transformation) confidence levels associated with distances in function space (confidence distances) based on the Monte Carlo simulations in order to test the consistency of an assumed cosmological model with observation. To show the applicability of our algorithm, we confront Planck 2013 temperature data with concordance model of cosmology considering two different Planck spectra combination. In order to have an accurate quantitative statistical measure to compare between the data and the theoretical expectations, we calibrate REACT confidence distances and perform a bias control using many realizations of the data. Our results in this work using Planck 2013 temperature data put the best fit ΛCDM model at 95% (∼ 2σ) confidence distance from the center of the nonparametric confidence set while repeating the analysis excluding the Planck 217 × 217 GHz spectrum data, the best fit ΛCDM model shifts to 70% (∼ 1σ) confidence distance. The most prominent features in the data deviating from the best fit ΛCDM model seems to be at low multipoles 18

The properties of the cosmic microwave background radiation provide unique constraints on the history and evolution of the universe. The first detection of anisotropy of the microwave radiation was reported by the COBE Team in 1992, based on the first year of flight data. The latest analyses of the first two years of COBE data are reviewed in this talk, including the amplitude of the microwave anisotropy as a function of angular scale and the statistical nature of the fluctuations. The two-year results are generally consistent with the earlier first year results, but the additional data allow for a better determination of the key cosmological parameters. In this talk the COBE results are compared with other observational anisotropy results and directions for future cosmic microwave anisotropy observations will be discussed. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA/GSFC) is responsible for the design, development, and operation of the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE). Scientific guidance is provided by the COBE Science Working Group.

One of the peculiarities of the TeO 2 crystal consists of its strong acoustic anisotropy. This anisotropy demonstrates itself by acoustic energy walk-off and anisotropic distortion of an acoustic beam. Four constants completely characterise the acoustic anisotropy of the medium. In this paper these constants are calculated for various directions of the acoustic beam in crystal. (authors)

Full Text Available We consider a dark sector consisting of dark matter that is a Dirac fermion and a scalar mediator. This model has been extensively studied in the past. If the scalar couples to the dark matter in a parity conserving manner then dark matter annihilation to two mediators is dominated by the P-wave channel and hence is suppressed at very low momentum. The indirect detection constraint from the anisotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background is usually thought to be absent in the model because of this suppression. In this letter we show that dark matter annihilation via bound state formation occurs through the S-wave and hence there is a constraint on the parameter space of the model from the Cosmic Microwave Background.

We investigate the effects of material anisotropy on the superheating field of layered superconductors. We provide an intuitive argument both for the existence of a superheating field, and its dependence on anisotropy, for κ =λ /ξ (the ratio of magnetic to superconducting healing lengths) both large and small. On the one hand, the combination of our estimates with published results using a two-gap model for MgB2 suggests high anisotropy of the superheating field near zero temperature. On the other hand, within Ginzburg-Landau theory for a single gap, we see that the superheating field shows significant anisotropy only when the crystal anisotropy is large and the Ginzburg-Landau parameter κ is small. We then conclude that only small anisotropies in the superheating field are expected for typical unconventional superconductors near the critical temperature. Using a generalized form of Ginzburg Landau theory, we do a quantitative calculation for the anisotropic superheating field by mapping the problem to the isotropic case, and present a phase diagram in terms of anisotropy and κ , showing type I, type II, or mixed behavior (within Ginzburg-Landau theory), and regions where each asymptotic solution is expected. We estimate anisotropies for a number of different materials, and discuss the importance of these results for radio-frequency cavities for particle accelerators.

The dispersion measure of extragalactic radio transients can be used to measure the column density of free electrons in the intergalactic medium. The same electrons also scatter the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) photons, affecting precision measurements of cosmological parameters. We explore the connection between the dispersion measure of radio transients existing during the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) and the total optical depth for the CMB showing that the existence of such transients would provide a new sensitive probe of the CMB optical depth. As an example, we consider the population of FRBs. Assuming they exist during the EoR, we show that: (i) such sources can probe the reionization history by measuring the optical depth to sub-percent accuracy, and (ii) they can be detected with high significance by an instrument such as the Square Kilometer Array.

The dispersion measure of extragalactic radio transients can be used to measure the column density of free electrons in the intergalactic medium. The same electrons also scatter the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) photons, affecting precision measurements of cosmological parameters. We explore the connection between the dispersion measure of radio transients existing during the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) and the total optical depth for the CMB showing that the existence of such transients would provide a new sensitive probe of the CMB optical depth. As an example, we consider the population of FRBs. Assuming they exist during the EoR, we show that: (i) such sources can probe the reionization history by measuring the optical depth to sub-percent accuracy, and (ii) they can be detected with high significance by an instrument such as the Square Kilometer Array.

Full Text Available The B-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB radiation is an excellent information channel for the detection of relic gravitational waves. However, the detection is contaminated by the B-mode polarization generated by some other effects. In this paper, we discuss the contaminations caused by the cosmological birefringence, which converts the CMB E-mode to the B-mode, and forms the effective noise for the detection of gravitational waves. We find that this contamination is significant, if the rotation angle is large. However, this kind of B-mode can be properly de-rotated, and the effective noises can be greatly reduced. We find that, comparing with the contaminations caused by cosmic weak lensing, the residual polarization generated by the cosmological birefringence is negligible for the detection of relic gravitational waves in the CMB.

We focus on the ongoing and future observations for both the 21 cm line and the CMB B-mode polarization produced by a CMB lensing, and study their sensitivities to the effective number of neutrino species, the total neutrino mass, and the neutrino mass hierarchy. We find that combining the CMB observations with future square kilometer arrays optimized for 21 cm line such as Omniscope can determine the neutrino mass hierarchy at 2{sigma}. We also show that a more feasible combination of Planck + POLARBEAR and SKA can strongly improve errors of the bounds on the total neutrino mass and the effective number of neutrino species to be {Delta}{Sigma}m{sub {nu}}{approx}0.12 eV and {Delta}N{sub {nu}}{approx}0.38 at 2{sigma}, respectively.

Multielemental analyses of aerosol samples are widely used in air pollution receptor modelling. Specifically, the chemical mass balance (CMB) model has become a powerful tool in urban air quality studies. Input data required for the CMB includes not only the traditional X-ray fluorescence (and hence PIXE) detected elements, but also total mass, organic and inorganic carbon, and other light elements including Mg, Na and F. The circular streaker sampler, in combination with PIXE analysis, has developed into a powerful tool for obtaining time-resolved, multielemental aerosol data. However, application in CMB modelling has been limited by the absence of total mass and complementary light element data. This study reports on progress in using techniques complementary to PIXE to obtain additional data from circular streaker samples, maintaining the nondestructive, instrumental approach inherent in PIXE: Beta-gauging using a 147 Pm source for total mass; optical absorption for inorganic carbon; and PIGE to measure the lighter elements. (orig.)

Eight olivine rock samples from different European regions were collected for neu- tron texture analyses and for P-wave velocity measurements by means of ultrasonic sounding at various confining pressures. The orientation distribution functions (ODFs) of olivine were determined and pole figures of the main crystallographic planes were calculated. The spatial P-wave velocity distributions were determined at confining pressures from 0.1 to 400 MPa and modelled from the olivine textures. In dependence upon the type of rock (xenolith or dunite) different behavior of both the P-wave veloc- ity distributions and the anisotropy coefficients with various confining pressures was observed. In order to explain the interdependence of elastic anisotropy and hydrostatic pressure, a model for polycrystalline olivine rocks was suggested, which considers the influence of the crystallographic and the mechanical textures on the elastic behaviour of the polycrystal. Since the olivine texture depends upon the active slip systems and the deformation temperature, neutron texture analyses enable us to estimate depth and thermodynamical conditions during texture formation.

The local magnetic anisotropy of R ions in R2Fe14B (R = Dy, Ho) systems is studied based on a microscopic effective spin model constructed from the information obtained by using first-principles calculations. By taking into account up to 6-th order crystal electric field parameters, the model satisfactory describes the observed magnetization curves and the temperature dependence of anisotropy constants. We found that at low temperatures, the noncollinear structure appears in the Ho2Fe14B system reflecting the local magnetic anisotropy.

The temperature dependence of the magnetic anisotropy constant K 1 for SmCo 5 and GdCo 5 is well reproduced by calculations based on a single-ion model taking into account the anisotropies of the R--Co exchange interaction and the Co-sublattice magnetic moment. The anisotropy of the R--Co exchange interaction plays an important role in reproducing the experimental K 1 (T) for SmCo 5 and GdCo 5 . It is found that the absolute value of the second order crystalline electric field parameter A 0 2 in SmCo 5 decreases monotonically with increasing temperature

We perform quantum Monte Carlo simulations for S=1 Heisenberg model with an uniaxial anisotropy. The system exhibits a phase transition as we vary the anisotropy and a long range order appears at a finite temperature when the exchange interaction J is comparable to the uniaxial anisotropy D. We investigate quantum critical phenomena of this model and obtain the line of the phase transition which approaches a power-law with logarithmic corrections at low temperature. We derive the form of logarithmic corrections analytically and compare it to our simulation results

We report on tailoring of magnetic properties and GMI of Fe 69 B 12 Si 14 C 5 glass-coated microwires by stress annealing. The induced magnetic anisotropy field depend on temperature and time of annealing and applied stress. At certain conditions considerable GMI effect (up to 65%) has been achieved. Application of the tensile stress drastically affects the shape of the hysteresis loop of stress-annealed sample and its GMI effect. In this way the shape of the hysteresis loop and GMI effect can by tailored by controllable way

Cylindrical giant vesicles prepared from egg lecithin and 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DMPC) are oriented in an external magnetic field and observed by phase contrast microscopy. The anisotropic part of the diamagnetic susceptibility of the lecithin membrane is determined from the distribution of angles between the magnetic field and the long cylinder axis due to thermal fluctuations. The anisotropy of DMPC is found to be larger by a factor of 2 than that of egg lecithin. This...

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization and the 21-cm line fluctuations are powerful probes of cosmological reionization. We study how the cross-correlation between the CMB polarization (E modes) and the 21-cm line fluctuations can be used to gain further understanding of the reionization

The evolution of magnetic anisotropy in bcc Fe as a function of interstitial boron atoms was investigated in thin films grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The thermodynamic nonequilibrium conditions during film growth allowed one to stabilize an interstitial boron content of about 14 at .% accompanied by lattice tetragonalization. The c /a ratio scaled linearly with the boron content up to a maximum value of 1.05 at 300 °C substrate growth temperature, with a room-temperature magnetization of. In contrast to nitrogen interstitials, the magnetic easy axis remained in-plane with an anisotropy of approximately -5.1 ×106erg /cm3 . Density functional theory calculations using the measured lattice parameters confirm this value and show that boron local ordering indeed favors in-plane magnetization. Given the increased temperature stability of boron interstitials as compared to nitrogen interstitials, this study will help to find possible ways to manipulate boron interstitials into a more favorable local order.

We report on measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and celestial polarization at 146 GHz made with the Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarimeter (ACTPol) in its first three months of observing. Four regions of sky covering a total of 270 square degrees were mapped with an angular resolution of 1.3'. The map noise levels in the four regions are between 11 and 17 μK-arcmin. We present TT, TE, EE, TB, EB, and BB power spectra from three of these regions. The observed E-mode polarization power spectrum, displaying six acoustic peaks in the range 200 temperature power spectrum, which results mostly from primordial density perturbations. We find that without masking any point sources in the EE data at ℓ

The vitrain components of a series of coal samples were carbonized at temperatures from 400 to 1000/sup 0/C at different rates of heating ranging from 0.5 to 10/sup 0/K/min and utilizing soaking times up to 24 hr. Polished specimens prepared from the carbonized products were examined microscopically under polarized light in order to determine the proportions of the various types of optical anisotropy present in them. The variations in heating rate and soaking time were found to exert little significant influence on the anisotropy developed in high-temperature cokes. But in semicokes produced at carbonization temperatures within the plastic range the influence of the carbonization conditions was much more pronounced with the effects being interrelated. Decreasing the heating rate or increasing the soaking time led to the optical anisotropy generally becoming detectable at lower carbonization temperatures. Fast heating rates caused an increase in the rate of transformation of the fine-grain mosaic anisotropy into coarser-grained types of anisotropy and increased soaking time led to enhanced anisotropic development in the semicokes produced at temperatures within the plastic range. The type of anisotropy developed in cokes is closely related to the release of volatile matter and the plasticity developed during carbonization and the conclusion is drawn that the balance between these factors controls the extent of the anisotropic development.

The SPOrt (Sky Polarization Observatory) experiment aims to measure CMBP (cosmic microwave background polarization) on about 80% of the sky from space. Selected by ESA to fly on board the ISS in 2006, it is funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI). As shown also by the recent WMAP release, CMBP data, besides of removing various degeneracies among cosmological parameters, provided new and important information on the cosmic opacity τ and, therefore, on very early cosmic objects which reionized the world at z ∼ 15. Most such information is obtained from low-l spectral components, that SPOrt, with its HPBW resolution of 7 degrees will explore with a high level of sensitivity. The 4 polarimeters of SPOrt work at 22, 32 and (2x) 90 GHz. At lower frequencies they will provide a (nearly) all-sky survey of Galactic synchrotron polarized emission, while data at the higher frequency will measure the CMBP signal. Correlating SPOrt with anisotropy data, by other experiments, shall therefore provide significant cosmological information. We performed a number of simulations of SPOrt performance, aimed to determine how far τ and/or other parameter(s) concerning reionization are constrained by the expected data. We also considered a possible interplay between reionization histories and Dark Energy nature. Besides of information on technological developments for systematics reduction, long term stability and observing time efficiency, we report here recent outputs on the expected SPOrt performance in constraining cosmological models

We present a systematic study on the influence of epitaxial strain and hole concentration on the magnetic anisotropy in (Ga,Mn)As at 4.2 K. The strain was gradually varied over a wide range from tensile to compressive by growing a series of (Ga,Mn)As layers with 5% Mn on relaxed graded (In,Ga)As/GaAs templates with different In concentration. The hole density, the Curie temperature, and the relaxed lattice constant of the as-grown and annealed (Ga,Mn)As layers turned out to be essentially unaffected by the strain. Angle-dependent magnetotransport measurements performed at different magnetic-field strengths were used to probe the magnetic anisotropy. The measurements reveal a pronounced linear dependence of the uniaxial out-of-plane anisotropy on both strain and hole density. Whereas the uniaxial and cubic in-plane anisotropies are nearly constant, the cubic out-of-plane anisotropy changes sign when the magnetic easy axis flips from in-plane to out-of-plane. The experimental results for the magnetic anisotropy are quantitatively compared with calculations of the free energy based on a mean-field Zener model. Almost perfect agreement between experiment and theory is found for the uniaxial out-of-plane and cubic in-plane anisotropy parameters of the as-grown samples. In addition, magnetostriction constants are derived from the anisotropy data.

Full Text Available In this study, we investigated the transcriptomic response of Streptococcus pneumoniae D39 to cysteine. Transcriptome comparison of the D39 wild-type strain grown at a restricted concentration of cysteine (0.03 mM to one grown at a high concentration of cysteine (50 mM in chemically-define medium (CDM revealed elevated expression of various genes/operons, i.e. spd-0150, metQ, spd-0431, metEF, gshT, spd-0618, fhs, tcyB, metB-csd, metA, spd-1898, yvdE, and cysK, likely to be involved in the transport and utilization of cysteine and/or methionine. Microarray-based data were further confirmed by quantitative RT-PCR. Promoter lacZ-fusion studies and quantitative RT-PCR data showed that the transcriptional regulator CmbR acts as a transcriptional repressor of spd-0150, metEF, gshT, spd-0618, tcyB, metA, and yvdE, putatively involved in cysteine uptake and utilization. The operator site of CmbR in the promoter regions of CmbR-regulated genes is predicted and confirmed by mutating or deleting CmbR operator sites from the promoter regions of these genes.

One of the most outstanding results of the Chandra X-ray Observatory was the discovery that AGN jets are bright X-ray emitters on very large scales, up to hundreds of kpc. Of these, the powerful and beamed jets of flat-spectrum radio quasars are particularly interesting, as the X-ray emission cannot be explained by an extrapolation of the lower frequency synchrotron spectrum. Instead, the most common model invokes inverse Compton scattering of photons of the cosmic microwave background (EC/CMB) as the mechanism responsible for the high-energy emission. The EC/CMB model has recently come under criticism, particularly because it should predict a significant steady flux in the MeV-GeV band which has not been detected by the Fermi/LAT telescope for two of the best studied jets (PKS 0637-752 and 3C273). In this work, we revisit some aspects of the EC/CMB model and show that electron cooling plays an important part in shaping the spectrum. This can solve the overproduction of γ-rays by suppressing the high-energy end of the emitting particle population. Furthermore, we show that cooling in the EC/CMB model predicts a new class of extended jets that are bright in X-rays but silent in the radio and optical bands. These jets are more likely to lie at intermediate redshifts and would have been missed in all previous X-ray surveys due to selection effects.

We consider the angular power spectrum in a finite universe with different boundary conditions and perform a fit to the CMB, LSS and supernova data. A finite universe could be the consequence of a holographic constraint, giving rise to an effective IR cutoff at the future event horizon...

The BB-mode correlation angular power spectrum of CMB is obtained by considering the primordial gravitational waves in the squeezed vacuum state for various inflationary models and results are compared with the joint analysis of the BICEP2/Keck Array and Planck 353 GHz data. The present results may constrain several models of inflation. (orig.)

The Planck satellite has measured CMBanisotropies over the full sky with unprecedented sensitivity. The collaboration has released its first CMBtemperature maps and cosmological analysis on the 21st of March. I will present a summary of these new CMB results, focusing mainly on their implications for our understanding of the Universe.

We present a cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing map produced from a linear combination of South Pole Telescope (SPT) and \\emph{Planck} temperature data. The 150 GHz temperature data from the $2500\\ {\\rm deg}^{2}$ SPT-SZ survey is combined with the \\emph{Planck} 143 GHz data in harmonic space, to obtain a temperature map that has a broader $\\ell$ coverage and less noise than either individual map. Using a quadratic estimator technique on this combined temperature map, we produce a map of the gravitational lensing potential projected along the line of sight. We measure the auto-spectrum of the lensing potential $C_{L}^{\\phi\\phi}$, and compare it to the theoretical prediction for a $\\Lambda$CDM cosmology consistent with the \\emph{Planck} 2015 data set, finding a best-fit amplitude of $0.95_{-0.06}^{+0.06}({\\rm Stat.})\\! _{-0.01}^{+0.01}({\\rm Sys.})$. The null hypothesis of no lensing is rejected at a significance of $24\\,\\sigma$. One important use of such a lensing potential map is in cross-correlations with other dark matter tracers. We demonstrate this cross-correlation in practice by calculating the cross-spectrum, $C_{L}^{\\phi G}$, between the SPT+\\emph{Planck} lensing map and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (\\emph{WISE}) galaxies. We fit $C_{L}^{\\phi G}$ to a power law of the form $p_{L}=a(L/L_{0})^{-b}$ with $a=2.15 \\times 10^{-8}$, $b=1.35$, $L_{0}=490$, and find $\\eta^{\\phi G}=0.94^{+0.04}_{-0.04}$, which is marginally lower, but in good agreement with $\\eta^{\\phi G}=1.00^{+0.02}_{-0.01}$, the best-fit amplitude for the cross-correlation of \\emph{Planck}-2015 CMB lensing and \\emph{WISE} galaxies over $\\sim67\\%$ of the sky. The lensing potential map presented here will be used for cross-correlation studies with the Dark Energy Survey (DES), whose footprint nearly completely covers the SPT $2500\\ {\\rm deg}^2$ field.

We simulate CMB maps including non-Gaussianity arising from cubic order perturbations of the primordial gravitational potential, characterized by the non-linearity parameter g NL . The maps are used to study the characteristic nature of the resulting non-Gaussian temperature fluctuations. We measure the genus and investigate how it deviates from Gaussian shape as a function of g NL and smoothing scale. We find that the deviation of the non-Gaussian genus curve from the Gaussian one has an antisymmetric, sine function like shape, implying more hot and more cold spots for g NL > 0 and less of both for g NL NL and also exhibits mild increase as the smoothing scale increases. We further study other statistics derived from the genus, namely, the number of hot spots, the number of cold spots, combined number of hot and cold spots and the slope of the genus curve at mean temperature fluctuation. We find that these observables carry signatures of g NL that are clearly distinct from the quadratic order perturbations, encoded in the parameter f NL . Hence they can be very useful tools for distinguishing not only between non-Gaussian temperature fluctuations and Gaussian ones but also between g NL and f NL type non-Gaussianities

Our peculiar motion with respect to the CMB rest frame represents a preferred direction in the observed CMB sky since it induces an apparent deflection of the observed CMB photons (aberration) and a shift in their frequency (Doppler). Both effects distort the multipoles a ℓm 's at all ℓ's. Such effects are real as it has been recently measured for the first time by Planck according to what was forecast in some recent papers. However, the common lore when estimating a power spectrum from CMB is to consider that Doppler affects only the ℓ = 1 multipole, neglecting any other corrections. In this work we use simulations of the CMB sky in a boosted frame with a peculiar velocity β≡v/c = 1.23 × 10 −3 in order to assess the impact of such effect on power spectrum estimations in different regions of the sky. We show that the boost induces a north-south asymmetry in the power spectrum which is highly significant and non-negligible, of about (0.58±0.10)% for half-sky cuts when going up to ℓ ≈ 2500. We suggest that these effects are relevant and may account for some of the north-south asymmetries seen in the Planck data, being especially important at small scales. Finally we analyze the particular case of the ACT experiment, which observed only a small fraction of the sky and show that it suffers a bias of about 1% on the power spectrum and of similar size on some cosmological parameters: for example the position of the peaks shifts by 0.5% and the overall amplitude of the spectrum is about 0.4% lower than a full-sky case

In this paper we study in detail the effect of our recently proposed model of parity and charge-parity (PCP) violating varying alpha on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) photon passing through the intra galaxy-cluster medium (ICM). The ICM is well known to be composed of magnetized plasma. According to our model, the polarization and intensity of the CMB would be affected when traversing through the ICM due to non-trivial scalar photon interactions. We have calculated the evolution of such polarization and intensity collectively, known as the stokes parameters of the CMB photon during its journey through the ICM and tested our results against the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) measurement on Coma galaxy cluster. Our model contains a PCP violating parameter, {beta}, and a scale of alpha variation {omega}. Using the derived constrained on the photon-to-scalar conversion probability, {bar P}{sub {gamma}{yields}{phi}}, for Coma cluster in ref.[34] we found a contour plot in the ({omega},{beta}) parameter plane. The {beta} = 0 line in this parameter space corresponds to well-studied Maxwell-dilaton type models which has lower bound on {omega} {approx}> 6.4 x 10{sup 9} GeV. In general, as the absolute value of {beta} increases, lower bound on {omega} also increases. Our model in general predicts the modification of the CMB polarization with a non-trivial dependence on the parity violating coupling parameter {beta}. However, it is unconstrained in this particular study. We show that this effect can in principle be detected in the future measurements on CMB polarization such that {beta} can also be constrained.

In electrically neutral plasmas with strongly anisotropic distribution functions, free energy is available to drive different collective instabilities such as the electrostatic Harris instability and the transverse electromagnetic Weibel instability. Such anisotropies develop naturally in particle accelerators and may lead to a detoriation of beam quality. We have generalized the analysis of the classical Harris and Weibel instabilities to the case of a one-component intense charged particle beam with anisotropic temperature including the important effects of finite transverse geometry and beam space-charge. For a long costing beam, the delta-f particle-in-cell code BEST and the eighenmode code bEASt have been used to determine detailed 3D stability properties over a wide range of temperatureanisotropy and beam intensity. A theoretical model is developed which describes the essential features of the linear stage of these instabilities. Both, the simulations and analytical theory, clearly show that moderately...

To study the electronic anisotropy in iron based superconductors, the temperature dependent London penetration depth, Δλ(T), have been measured in several compounds, along with the angular dependent upper critical field, Hc2(T). Study was undertaken on single crystals of Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2 with x=0.108 and x=0.127, in the overdoped range of the doping phase diagram, characterized by notable modulation of the superconducting gap. Heavy ion irradiation with matching field doses of 6 T and 6.5 T respectively, were used to create columnar defects and to study their effect on the temperature Δλ(T). The variation of the low-temperature penetration depth in both pristine and irradiated samples was fitted with a power-law function Δλ(T) = ATn. Irradiation increases the magnitude of the pre-factor A and decreases the exponent n, similar to the effect on the optimally doped samples. This finding supports the universal s ± scenario for the whole doping range.

The critical current density in Bi-2212 superconductors with various anisotropies irradiated by heavy ions was investigated in the medium temperature region to understand the effects of defect size and the anisotropy of the superconductor. It was found that the critical current density and the irreversibility field were larger for the specimen with larger defect and/or with smaller anisotropy. Introduction of stronger pinning centers and the optimization of the doping condition to improve the dimensionality are desired for further improvement of the critical current properties

The effect of thermal activation on the in-plane magnetic anisotropy [measured as orientation ratio (OR)] of granular longitudinal magnetic recording media is investigated. Temperature and time dependent studies were made on media with different magnetic layer thicknesses. We find that OR is independent of temperature for a stable medium but shows a large increase with temperature for thermally unstable media. At low temperatures and high field sweep rates, the OR values are found to be the same, independent of the magnetic layer thickness. The unique value when thermal activation is reduced is consistent with the high population of the cobalt c axes along the texturing direction as the origin of anisotropy

The characteristics of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CBR) are reviewed, focusing on intrinsic anisotropies caused by primordial matter fluctuations. The basic elements of the CBR are outlined and the contributions to anisotropy at different angular scales are discussed. Possible fluctuation spectra that can generate the observed large-scale structure of the universe through gravitational instability and nonlinear evolution are examined and compared with observational searches for cosmic microwave anisotropies. 21 refs

The magnetic anisotropy of Ni/Cr multilayers has been investigated by using vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and ferromagnetic resonance techniques (FMR). The FMR spectra are obtained as a function of the orientation of the applied magnetic field from in-plane to out-of-plane. The results are fitted theoretically to determine the magnetic anisotropy. From VSM and FMR, a positive value for Ni/Cr interface anisotropy is obtained, which favours a perpendicular easy axis. The possible mechanism for the perpendicular anisotropy has been discussed and it may be attributed to the magnetostriction, caused by intrinsic stress due to lattice mismatch. (orig.). With 005 figs., 001 tabs

Though extensively studied, the roles of olivine crystal preferred orientations (CPOs or fabrics) in affecting the seismic anisotropies in the Earth's upper mantle are rather complicated and still not fully known. In this study, we attempted to address this issue by analyzing the seismic anisotropies [e.g., P-wave anisotropy (AVp), S-wave polarization anisotropy (AVs), radial anisotropy (ξ), and Rayleigh wave anisotropy (G)] of the Songshugou peridotites (dunite dominated) in the Qinling orogen in central China, based on our previously reported olivine CPOs. The seismic anisotropy patterns of olivine aggregates in our studied samples are well consistent with the prediction for their olivine CPO types; and the magnitude of seismic anisotropies shows a striking positive correlation with equilibrium pressure and temperature (P-T) conditions. Significant reductions of seismic anisotropies (AVp, max. AVs, and G) are observed in porphyroclastic dunite compared to coarse- and fine-grained dunites, as the results of olivine CPO transition (from A-/D-type in coarse-grained dunite, through AG-type-like in porphyroclastic dunite, to B-type-like in fine-grained dunite) and strength variation (weakening: A-/D-type → AG-type-like; strengthening: AG-type-like → B-type-like) during dynamic recrystallization. The transition of olivine CPOs from A-/D-type to B-/AG-type-like in the forearc mantle may weaken the seismic anisotropies and deviate the fast velocity direction and the fast S-wave polarization direction from trench-perpendicular to trench-oblique direction with the cooling and aging of forearc mantle. Depending on the size and distribution of the peridotite body such as the Songshugou peridotites, B- and AG-type-like olivine CPOs can be an additional (despite minor) local contributor to the orogen-parallel fast velocity direction and fast shear-wave polarization direction in the orogenic crust such as in the Songshugou area in Qinling orogen.

There are some hotspot volcanoes on Earth, such as Hawaii and Iceland. The mantle plume hypothesis was proposed forty years ago to explain hotspot volcanoes (e.g., Wilson, 1963; Morgan, 1971). Seismic tomography is a powerful technique to detect mantle plumes and determine their detailed structures. We determined a new whole-mantle 3-D P-wave velocity model (Tohoku model) using a global tomography method (Zhao, 2004, 2009). A flexible-grid approach with a grid interval of ~200 km is adopted to conduct the tomographic inversion. Our model shows that low-velocity (low-V) anomalies with diameters of several hundreds of kilometers are visible from the core-mantle boundary (CMB) to the surface under the major hotspot regions. Under South Pacific where several hotspots including Tahiti exist, there is a huge low-V anomaly from the CMB to the surface. This feature is consistent with the previous models. We conducted extensive resolution tests in order to understand whether this low-V anomaly shows a single superplume or a plume cluster. Unfortunately this problem is still not resolved because the ray path coverage in the mantle under South Pacific is not good enough. A network of ocean bottom seismometers is necessary to solve this problem. To better understand the whole-mantle structure and dynamics, we also conducted P-wave tomographic inversions for the 3-D velocity structure and azimuthal anisotropy. At each grid node there are three unknown parameters: one represents the isotropic velocity, the other two represent the azimuthal anisotropy. Our results show that in the shallow part of the mantle (Japan trench axis. In the Tonga subduction zone, the FVD is also perpendicular to the trench axis. Under the Tibetan region the FVD is NE-SW, which is parallel to the direction of the India-Asia collision. In the deeper part of the upper mantle and in the lower mantle, the amplitude of anisotropy is reduced. One interesting feature is that the FVD aligns in a radiated fashion

TbF3 (sp. gr. Pnma) crystals up to 40 mm in diameter have been grown from melt by a Bridgman technique. The anisotropy of their mechanical properties is studied for the first time. the technical elasticity constants are calculated, and room-temperature values of Vickers microhardness for the (010) and (100) planes are measured. The shape of indentation impressions is found to correlate with Young's modulus anisotropy for TbF3 crystals.

The recent study of centrality and transverse momentum (pT) dependence of inclusive charged hardron elliptic anisotropy (v2) at midrapidity (|η|<1.0) in Au+Au collision at √{sNN}=7.7,11.5,19.6,27, and 39 GeV in STAR Beam Energy Scan program is presented. We show that the observed increase of inclusive v2 is mainly due to the average pT increase with energy. In Au+Au 200 GeV collisions, the triangular anisotropy (v3) measurements highly depend on measurement methods; v3 is strongly dependent on Δη. The difference between two- and four-particle cumulants v2{2} and v2{4} for Au+Au and Cu+Cu collision at √{sNN}=62.4 and 200 GeV is used to explore flow fluctuations. Furthermore, by exploiting the symmetry of average flow in pseudorapidity η about midrapidity, the Δη-dependent and independent components are separated using v2{2} and v2{4}.

The recent study of centrality and transverse momentum (p{sub T}) dependence of inclusive charged hardron elliptic anisotropy (v{sub 2}) at midrapidity (|η|<1.0) in Au+Au collision at √(s{sub NN})=7.7,11.5,19.6,27, and39 GeV in STAR Beam Energy Scan program is presented. We show that the observed increase of inclusive v{sub 2} is mainly due to the average p{sub T} increase with energy. In Au+Au 200 GeV collisions, the triangular anisotropy (v{sub 3}) measurements highly depend on measurement methods; v{sub 3} is strongly dependent on Δη. The difference between two- and four-particle cumulants v{sub 2}{2} and v{sub 2}{4} for Au+Au and Cu+Cu collision at √(s{sub NN})=62.4 and 200 GeV is used to explore flow fluctuations. Furthermore, by exploiting the symmetry of average flow in pseudorapidity η about midrapidity, the Δη-dependent and independent components are separated using v{sub 2}{2} and v{sub 2}{4}.

The recent study of centrality and transverse momentum (p T ) dependence of inclusive charged hardron elliptic anisotropy (v 2 ) at midrapidity (|η|<1.0) in Au+Au collision at √(s NN )=7.7,11.5,19.6,27, and39 GeV in STAR Beam Energy Scan program is presented. We show that the observed increase of inclusive v 2 is mainly due to the average p T increase with energy. In Au+Au 200 GeV collisions, the triangular anisotropy (v 3 ) measurements highly depend on measurement methods; v 3 is strongly dependent on Δη. The difference between two- and four-particle cumulants v 2 {2} and v 2 {4} for Au+Au and Cu+Cu collision at √(s NN )=62.4 and 200 GeV is used to explore flow fluctuations. Furthermore, by exploiting the symmetry of average flow in pseudorapidity η about midrapidity, the Δη-dependent and independent components are separated using v 2 {2} and v 2 {4}

Because of their high temperature resistance, carbon felts are used as thermal insulating materials for high temperature applications. The aim of this paper is to present a model that allows to calculate the thermal conductivity of felt fibers taking into account their high anisotropy and the contact resistance of fibers generated by the 3-D constriction phenomena which develop in fibers around each contact point. The study is divided in two parts: the first part concerns the bibliographic study of the different anisotropies of fibers and felts, while the second part presents the proposed conductivity model. (J.S.) 12 refs.

We have used a radio-frequency-gain total-power radiometer to measure the intensity of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at a frequency of 1.47 GHz (20.4 cm wavelength) from White Mountain, California in 1988 September and from the South Pole in 1989 December. The CMB thermodynamic temperature, T(CMB), is 2.27 +/- 0.25 K (68 percent confidence limit) measured from White Mountain and 2.26 +/- 0.20 K from the South Pole site. The combined result is 2.26 +/- 0.19 K. The correction for Galactic emission has been derived from scaled low-frequency maps and constitutes the main source of error. The atmospheric signal is extrapolated from our zenith scan measurements at higher frequencies. These results are consistent with our previous measurement at 1.41 GHz and about 2.5 sigma from the 2.74 +/- 0.01 K global average CMBtemperature.

Diacoumis, James A.D.; Wong, Yvonne Y.Y., E-mail: j.diacoumis@unsw.edu.au, E-mail: yvonne.y.wong@unsw.edu.au [School of Physics, The University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052 (Australia)

2017-09-01

The dissipation of small-scale perturbations in the early universe produces a distortion in the blackbody spectrum of cosmic microwave background photons. In this work, we propose to use these distortions as a probe of the microphysics of dark matter on scales 1 Mpc{sup -1}∼< k ∼< 10{sup 4} Mpc{sup -1}. We consider in particular models in which the dark matter is kinetically coupled to either neutrinos or photons until shortly before recombination, and compute the photon heating rate and the resultant μ-distortion in both cases. We show that the μ-parameter is generally enhanced relative to ΛCDM for interactions with neutrinos, and may be either enhanced or suppressed in the case of interactions with photons. The deviations from the ΛCDM signal are potentially within the sensitivity reach of a PRISM-like experiment if σ{sub DM-γ} ∼> 1.1 × 10{sup -30} (m{sub DM}/GeV) cm{sup 2} and σ{sub DM-ν} ∼> 4.8 × 10{sup -32} (m{sub DM}/GeV) cm{sup 2} for time-independent cross sections, and σ{sup 0}{sub DM-γ} ∼> 1.8 × 10{sup -40} (m{sub DM}/GeV) cm{sup 2} and σ{sup 0}{sub DM-ν} ∼> 2.5 × 10{sup -47} (m{sub DM}/GeV) cm{sup 2} for cross sections scaling as temperature squared, coinciding with the parameter regions in which late kinetic decoupling may serve as a solution to the small-scale crisis. Furthermore, these μ-distortion signals differ from those of warm dark matter (no deviation from ΛCDM) and a suppressed primordial power spectrum (a strongly suppressed or negative μ-parameter), demonstrating that CMB spectral distortion can potentially be used to distinguish between solutions to the small-scale crisis.

We formulate a generalisation of the blast-wave model which is suitable for the description of higher-order azimuthal anisotropies of the hadron production. The model includes anisotropy in the density profile as well as an anisotropy in the transverse expansion velocity field. We then study how these two kinds of anisotropies influence the single-particle distributions and the correlation radii of two-particle correlation functions. Particularly we focus on the third-order anisotropy and consideration is given averaging over different orientations of the event plane. (orig.)

The electrical and Hall resistivities of Tb x Fe 100-x thin films in the temperature range 13-300 K were investigated. The sign of Hall resistivity at 300 K is found to change from positive for x=28 film to negative for x=30 film, in accordance with the compensation of Tb and Fe moments. All the films are seen to have planar magnetic anisotropy at 13 K. The temperature coefficients of electrical resistivities of the amorphous films with 19≤x≤51 are seen to be negative. The temperature dependence of Hall resistivity of these films is explained on the basis of random magnetic anisotropy model. The temperature dependences of Hall resistivities of the x=22 and 41 films are seen to exhibit a nonmonotonous behavior due to change in anisotropy from perpendicular to planar. The same behavior is considered for the explanation regarding the probable formation of Berry phase curvature in these films.

We use the most recent cosmic microwave background (CMB) data to perform a Bayesian statistical analysis and discuss the observational viability of inflationary models with a non-minimal coupling, ξ, between the inflaton field and the Ricci scalar. We particularize our analysis to two examples of small and large field inflationary models, namely, the Coleman-Weinberg and the chaotic quartic potentials. We find that ( i ) the ξ parameter is closely correlated with the primordial amplitude ; ( ii ) although improving the agreement with the CMB data in the r − n s plane, where r is the tensor-to-scalar ratio and n s the primordial spectral index, a non-null coupling is strongly disfavoured with respect to the minimally coupled standard ΛCDM model, since the upper bounds of the Bayes factor (odds) for ξ parameter are greater than 150:1.

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope has measured the angular power spectra of microwave fluctuations to arcminute scales at frequencies of 148 and 218 GHz, from three seasons of data. At small scales the fluctuations in the primordial Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) become increasingly obscured by extragalactic foregounds and secondary CMB signals. We present results from a nine-parameter model describing these secondary effects, including the thermal and kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (tSZ and kSZ) power; the clustered and Poisson-like power from Cosmic Infrared Background (CIB) sources, and their frequency scaling; the tSZ-CIB correlation coefficient; the extragalactic radio source power; and thermal dust emission from Galactic cirrus in two different regions of the sky. In order to extract cosmological parameters, we describe a likelihood function for the ACT data, fitting this model to the multi-frequency spectra in the multipole range 500 cosmological parameter estimation

Full Text Available The metal extraction from spent CMB catalyst using supercritical CO2(scCO2 was investigated with single organic system, binary organic system and ternary organic system to extract metal ions. Leaching solution of spent CMB catalyst containing 389 mg L−1 Co2+, 187 mg L−1 Mn2+, 133 mg L−1 Na+, 14.97 mg L−1 Ca2+ and 13.2 mg L−1 Mg2+. The method consists of scCO2/ligands complexation process and metal extraction process at 60°C and 200bar. The result showed the Co and Mn was selectively extracted from Mg, Ca and Na in the ternary system of mixture of Cyanex272, DEA and Alamine304-I.

Following many theories that predict the existence of the multiverse and by conjecture that our space-time may have a generalized geometrical structure at the fundamental level, we are interested in using a non-commutative geometry (NCG) formalism to study a suggested two-layer space that contains our 4-dimensional (4D) universe and a re-derived photon propagator. It can be shown that the photon propagator and a cosmic microwave background (CMB) angular correlation function are comparable, and if there exists such a multiverse system, the distance between the two layers can be estimated to be within the observable universe’s radius. Furthermore, this study revealed that our results are not limited to CMB but can be applied to many other types of radiation, such as X-rays.

We use the most recent cosmic microwave background (CMB) data to perform a Bayesian statistical analysis and discuss the observational viability of inflationary models with a non-minimal coupling, ξ, between the inflaton field and the Ricci scalar. We particularize our analysis to two examples of small and large field inflationary models, namely, the Coleman-Weinberg and the chaotic quartic potentials. We find that ( i ) the ξ parameter is closely correlated with the primordial amplitude ; ( ii ) although improving the agreement with the CMB data in the r − n {sub s} plane, where r is the tensor-to-scalar ratio and n {sub s} the primordial spectral index, a non-null coupling is strongly disfavoured with respect to the minimally coupled standard ΛCDM model, since the upper bounds of the Bayes factor (odds) for ξ parameter are greater than 150:1.

The data analysis of current Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) experiments like BOOMERanG or MAXIMA poses severe challenges which already stretch the limits of current (super-) computer capabilities, if brute force methods are used. In this paper we present a practical solution for the optimal map making problem which can be used directly for next generation CMB experiments like ARCHEOPS and TopHat, and can probably be extended relatively easily to the full PLANCK case. This solution is based on an iterative multi-grid Jacobi algorithm which is both fast and memory sparing. Indeed, if there are Ntod data points along the one dimensional timeline to analyse, the number of operations is of O (Ntod \\ln Ntod) and the memory requirement is O (Ntod). Timing and accuracy issues have been analysed on simulated ARCHEOPS and TopHat data, and we discuss as well the issue of the joint evaluation of the signal and noise statistical properties.

The observations of Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia), Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) and Cosmic Microwave Background radiation (CMB) provide powerful tools for the measurement of cosmological parameters. One of the most useful information encodes in the distance measured by those probes. In this Letter, we test the coherence of the observational information provided by SN Ia, BAO and CMB experiments. We make two kinds of comparison: the first is the constraints on cosmological parameters of the equation of state parameter (EoS) of dark energy (DE) and matter budget parameter Ω m from the latest data by global fitting, and we find the large discrepancy from those different probes. The second comparison is performed among the derived distance information from these observations at certain appointed redshift, the results show that the distance provided by WMAP5 are larger than those from SN Ia and BAO on the whole.

We report on the observation of high-frequency collective magnetic excitations, (h) over bar omegaapproximate to1.1 meV, in hematite (alpha-Fe2O3) nanoparticles. The neutron scattering experiments include measurements at temperatures in the range 6-300 K and applied fields up to 7.5 T as well...... as polarization analysis. We give an explanation for the field- and temperature dependence of the excitations, which are found to have strongly elliptical out-of-plane precession. The frequency of the excitations gives information on the magnetic anisotropy constants in the system. We have in this way determined...

The blackbody spectrum of CMB was created in the blackbody photosphere at redshifts z∼>2 × 10{sup 6}. At these early times, the Universe was dense and hot enough that complete thermal equilibrium between baryonic matter (electrons and ions) and photons could be established on time scales much shorter than the age of the Universe. Any perturbation away from the blackbody spectrum was suppressed exponentially. New physics, for example annihilation and decay of dark matter, can add energy and photons to CMB at redshifts z∼>10{sup 5} and result in a Bose-Einstein spectrum with a non-zero chemical potential (μ). Precise evolution of the CMB spectrum around the critical redshift of z ≅ 2 × 10{sup 6} is required in order to calculate the μ-type spectral distortion and constrain the underlying new physics. Although numerical calculation of important processes involved (double Compton process, comptonization and bremsstrahlung) is not difficult with present day computers, analytic solutions are much faster and easier to calculate and provide valuable physical insights. We provide precise (better than 1%) analytic solutions for the decay of μ, created at an earlier epoch, including all three processes, double Compton, Compton scattering on thermal electrons and bremsstrahlung in the limit of small distortions. This is a significant improvement over the existing solutions with accuracy ∼ 10% or worse. We also give a census of important sources of energy injection into CMB in standard cosmology. In particular, calculations of distortions from electron-positron annihilation and primordial nucleosynthesis illustrate in a dramatic way the strength of the equilibrium restoring processes in the early Universe. Finally, we point out the triple degeneracy in standard cosmology, i.e., the μ and y distortions from adiabatic cooling of baryons and electrons, Silk damping and annihilation of thermally produced WIMP dark matter are of similar order of magnitude ( ∼ 10{sup

Large-scale anomalies have been reported in CMB data with both WMAP and Planck data. These could be due to foreground residuals and or systematic effects, though their confirmation with Planck data suggests they are not due to a problem in the WMAP or Planck pipelines. If these anomalies are in fact primordial, then understanding their origin is fundamental to either validate the standard model of cosmology or to explore new physics. We investigate three other possible issues: 1) the trade-off between minimising systematics due to foreground contamination (with a conservative mask) and minimising systematics due to masking, 2) astrophysical secondary effects (the kinetic Doppler quadrupole and kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect), and 3) secondary cosmological signals (the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect). We address the masking issue by considering new procedures that use both WMAP and Planck to produce higher quality full-sky maps using the sparsity methodology (LGMCA maps). We show the impact of masking is dominant over that of residual foregrounds, and the LGMCA full-sky maps can be used without further processing to study anomalies. We consider four official Planck PR1 and two LGMCA CMB maps. Analysis of the observed CMB maps shows that only the low quadrupole and quadrupole-octopole alignment seem significant, but that the planar octopole, Axis of Evil, mirror parity and cold spot are not significant in nearly all maps considered. After subtraction of astrophysical and cosmological secondary effects, only the low quadrupole may still be considered anomalous, meaning the significance of only one anomaly is affected by secondary effect subtraction out of six anomalies considered. In the spirit of reproducible research all reconstructed maps and codes will be made available for download here http://www.cosmostat.org/anomaliesCMB.html

Large-scale anomalies have been reported in CMB data with both WMAP and Planck data. These could be due to foreground residuals and or systematic effects, though their confirmation with Planck data suggests they are not due to a problem in the WMAP or Planck pipelines. If these anomalies are in fact primordial, then understanding their origin is fundamental to either validate the standard model of cosmology or to explore new physics. We investigate three other possible issues: 1) the trade-off between minimising systematics due to foreground contamination (with a conservative mask) and minimising systematics due to masking, 2) astrophysical secondary effects (the kinetic Doppler quadrupole and kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect), and 3) secondary cosmological signals (the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect). We address the masking issue by considering new procedures that use both WMAP and Planck to produce higher quality full-sky maps using the sparsity methodology (LGMCA maps). We show the impact of masking is dominant over that of residual foregrounds, and the LGMCA full-sky maps can be used without further processing to study anomalies. We consider four official Planck PR1 and two LGMCA CMB maps. Analysis of the observed CMB maps shows that only the low quadrupole and quadrupole-octopole alignment seem significant, but that the planar octopole, Axis of Evil, mirror parity and cold spot are not significant in nearly all maps considered. After subtraction of astrophysical and cosmological secondary effects, only the low quadrupole may still be considered anomalous, meaning the significance of only one anomaly is affected by secondary effect subtraction out of six anomalies considered. In the spirit of reproducible research all reconstructed maps and codes will be made available for download here http://www.cosmostat.org/anomaliesCMB.html.

This paper presents the results of an optical anisotropy study of a polymer film and the effect of temperature on birefringence. A method using a polariscope for the quantitative determination of the optical path difference is offered. The research findings are useful to students of physical and engineering specialities studying electromagnetic theory and optics. The described experiments and theoretical approaches are based on prominent aspects of modern optics. This work can be used to teach students the methods of polarimetry, the method of measuring optical anisotropy, and the basics of colorimetry. Students will learn a color description system to demonstrate the interference of polarized light, as well as being able to make a comparison between the numerical simulation and experiment of the interference pattern. (paper)

products [1], whereas stretching (frozen-in strain) results in optical and mechanical anisotropy of glass fibers, which is quantified inter alia by the specific birefringence [2]. The paper will stress the later effects by combining previous results on the structural origins of birefringence...... and anisotropic shrinkage in silica and phosphate fibers with recent studies on relaxation of optical anisotropy in E-glass fibers [3,4].......Upon fiber drawing, glass forming oxide melts are thermally quenched and mechanically stretched. High cooling rates (up to 106 K/min) of quenched glass fibres lead to higher enthalpy state of liquids, thereby, to higher fictive temperature than regular quenching (e.g. 20 K/min) of bulk glass...

Magnetization and electrical resistivity measurements have been performed on a stoichiometric single crystalline magnetite Fe 3 O 4 thin film (thickness of ca. 500 nm) MBE deposited on MgO (1 0 0) substrate. The aim of these studies was to check the influence of preparation method and sample form (bulk vs. thin film) on magnetic anisotropy properties in magnetite. The film magnetization along versus applied magnetic field has been determined both in the direction parallel and perpendicular to the film surface, and at temperatures above and below the Verwey transition. We have found, in agreement with published results, that the in-plane field of 10 kOe was not sufficient to saturate the sample. This can be understood if some additional factor, on top of the bulk magnetocrystalline anisotropy, is taken into account

We present a fast Markov chain Monte Carlo exploration of cosmological parameter space. We perform a joint analysis of results from recent cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments and provide parameter constraints, including σ 8 , from the CMB independent of other data. We next combine data from the CMB, HST Key Project, 2dF galaxy redshift survey, supernovae type Ia and big-bang nucleosynthesis. The Monte Carlo method allows the rapid investigation of a large number of parameters, and we present results from 6 and 9 parameter analyses of flat models, and an 11 parameter analysis of non-flat models. Our results include constraints on the neutrino mass (m ν < or approx. 3 eV), equation of state of the dark energy, and the tensor amplitude, as well as demonstrating the effect of additional parameters on the base parameter constraints. In a series of appendixes we describe the many uses of importance sampling, including computing results from new data and accuracy correction of results generated from an approximate method. We also discuss the different ways of converting parameter samples to parameter constraints, the effect of the prior, assess the goodness of fit and consistency, and describe the use of analytic marginalization over normalization parameters

We show that the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization data gathered by the BOOMERanG 2003 flight and WMAP provide an opportunity to investigate in-vacuo birefringence, of a type expected in some quantum pictures of space-time, with a sensitivity that extends even beyond the desired Planck-scale energy. In order to render this constraint more transparent we rely on a well studied phenomenological model of quantum-gravity-induced birefringence, in which one easily establishes that effects introduced at the Planck scale would amount to values of a dimensionless parameter, denoted by ξ, with respect to the Planck energy which are roughly of order 1. By combining BOOMERanG and WMAP data we estimate ξ ≅ −0.110±0.075 at the 68% c.l. Moreover, we forecast on the sensitivity to ξ achievable by future CMB polarization experiments (PLANCK, Spider, EPIC), which, in the absence of systematics, will be at the 1-σ confidence of 8.5 × 10{sup −4} (PLANCK), 6.1 × 10{sup −3} (Spider), and 1.0 × 10{sup −5} (EPIC) respectively. The cosmic variance-limited sensitivity from CMB is 6.1 × 10{sup −6}.

We show that the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization data gathered by the BOOMERanG 2003 flight and WMAP provide an opportunity to investigate in-vacuo birefringence, of a type expected in some quantum pictures of space-time, with a sensitivity that extends even beyond the desired Planck-scale energy. In order to render this constraint more transparent we rely on a well studied phenomenological model of quantum-gravity-induced birefringence, in which one easily establishes that effects introduced at the Planck scale would amount to values of a dimensionless parameter, denoted by ξ, with respect to the Planck energy which are roughly of order 1. By combining BOOMERanG and WMAP data we estimate ξ ≅ −0.110±0.075 at the 68% c.l. Moreover, we forecast on the sensitivity to ξ achievable by future CMB polarization experiments (PLANCK, Spider, EPIC), which, in the absence of systematics, will be at the 1-σ confidence of 8.5 × 10 −4 (PLANCK), 6.1 × 10 −3 (Spider), and 1.0 × 10 −5 (EPIC) respectively. The cosmic variance-limited sensitivity from CMB is 6.1 × 10 −6

Full Text Available Cosmological phase transitions (CPTs, such as the Grand Unified Theory (GUT and the electroweak (EW ones, play a significant role in both particle physics and cosmology. In this letter, we propose to probe the first-order CPTs, by detecting gravitational waves (GWs which are generated during the phase transitions through the cosmic microwave background (CMB. If happened around the inflation era, the first-order CPTs may yield low-frequency GWs due to bubble dynamics, leaving imprints on the CMB. In contrast to the nearly scale-invariant primordial GWs caused by vacuum fluctuation, these bubble-generated GWs are scale dependent and have non-trivial B-mode spectra. If decoupled from inflaton, the EWPT during inflation may serve as a probe for the one after reheating where the baryon asymmetry could be generated via EW baryogenesis (EWBG. The CMB thus provides a potential way to test the feasibility of the EWBG, complementary to the collider measurements of Higgs potential and the direct detection of GWs generated during EWPT.

Cosmological phase transitions (CPTs), such as the Grand Unified Theory (GUT) and the electroweak (EW) ones, play a significant role in both particle physics and cosmology. In this letter, we propose to probe the first-order CPTs, by detecting gravitational waves (GWs) which are generated during the phase transitions through the cosmic microwave background (CMB). If happened around the inflation era, the first-order CPTs may yield low-frequency GWs due to bubble dynamics, leaving imprints on the CMB. In contrast to the nearly scale-invariant primordial GWs caused by vacuum fluctuation, these bubble-generated GWs are scale dependent and have non-trivial B-mode spectra. If decoupled from inflaton, the EWPT during inflation may serve as a probe for the one after reheating where the baryon asymmetry could be generated via EW baryogenesis (EWBG). The CMB thus provides a potential way to test the feasibility of the EWBG, complementary to the collider measurements of Higgs potential and the direct detection of GWs generated during EWPT.

We are constructing the Primordial Inflation Polarization Explorer (PIPER) to measure the polarization o[ the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and search for the imprint of gravity waves produced during an inflationary epoch in the early universe. The signal is faint and lies behind confusing foregrounds, both astrophysical and cosmological, and so many detectors are required to complete the measurement in a limited time. We will use four of our matured 1,280 pixel, high-filling-factor backshort-under-grid bolometer arrays for efficient operation at the PIPER CMB wavelengths. All four arrays observe at a common wavelength set by passband filters in the optical path. PIPER will fly four times to observe at wavelengths of 1500, 1100, 850, and 500 microns in order to separate CMB from foreground emission. The arrays employ leg-isolated superconducting transition edge sensor bolometers operated at 128mK; tuned resonant backshorts for efficient optical coupling; and a second-generation superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) multiplexer readout. We describe the design, development, and performance of PIPER bo|ometer array technology to achieve background-limited sensitivity for a cryogenic balloon-borne telescope.

Over the last few years, needlets have emerged as a useful tool for the analysis of cosmic microwave background (CMB) data. Our aim in this paper is first to introduce into the CMB literature a different form of needlets, known as Mexican needlets, first discussed in the mathematical literature by Geller and Mayeli. We then proceed with an extensive study of the properties of both standard and Mexican needlets; these properties depend on some parameters which can be tuned in order to optimize the performance for a given application. Our second aim in this paper is then to give practical advice on how to adjust these parameters for WMAP and Planck data in order to achieve the best properties for a given problem in CMB data analysis. In particular, we investigate localization properties in real and harmonic space and propose a recipe for quantifying the influence of galactic and point-source masks on the needlet coefficients. We also show that for certain parameter values, the Mexican needlets provide a close approximation to the Spherical Mexican Hat Wavelets (whence their name), with some advantages concerning their numerical implementation and derivation of their statistical properties.

Angle-dependent electron magnetic resonance was performed on 4.9, 8.0, and 19 nm iron oxide nanoparticles encapsulated within protein capsids and suspended in water. Measurements were taken at liquid nitrogen temperature after cooling in a 1 T field to partially align the particles. The angle dependence of the shifts in the resonance field for the iron oxide nanoparticles (synthesized within Listeria-Dps, horse spleen ferritin, and cowpea chlorotic mottle virus) all show evidence of a uniaxial anisotropy. Using a Boltzmann distribution for the particles' easy-axis direction, we are able to use the resonance field shifts to extract a value for the anisotropy energy, showing that the anisotropy energy density increases with decreasing particle size. This suggests that surface anisotropy plays a significant role in magnetic nanoparticles of this size

Angle-dependent electron magnetic resonance was performed on 4.9, 8.0, and 19 nm iron oxide nanoparticles encapsulated within protein capsids and suspended in water. Measurements were taken at liquid nitrogen temperature after cooling in a 1 T field to partially align the particles. The angle dependence of the shifts in the resonance field for the iron oxide nanoparticles (synthesized within Listeria-Dps, horse spleen ferritin, and cowpea chlorotic mottle virus) all show evidence of a uniaxial anisotropy. Using a Boltzmann distribution for the particles' easy-axis direction, we are able to use the resonance field shifts to extract a value for the anisotropy energy, showing that the anisotropy energy density increases with decreasing particle size. This suggests that surface anisotropy plays a significant role in magnetic nanoparticles of this size.

We propose to re-interpret the cosmic microwave background spectral distortions as solutions to the Boltzmann equation. This approach makes it possible to solve the second order Boltzmann equation explicitly, with the spectral y distortion and the momentum independent second order temperature perturbation, while generation of μ distortion cannot be explained even at second order in this framework. We also extend our method to higher order Boltzmann equations systematically and find new type spectral distortions, assuming that the collision term is linear in the photon distribution functions, namely, in the Thomson scattering limit. As an example, we concretely construct solutions to the cubic order Boltzmann equation and show that the equations are closed with additional three parameters composed of a cubic order temperature perturbation and two cubic order spectral distortions. The linear Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect whose momentum dependence is different from the usual y distortion is also discussed in the presence of the next leading order Kompaneets terms, and we show that higher order spectral distortions are also generated as a result of the diffusion process in a framework of higher order Boltzmann equations. The method may be applicable to a wider class of problems and has potential to give a general prescription to non-equilibrium physics.

We study primordial anisotropies generated in the model of gauged hybrid inflation in which the complex waterfall field is charged under a U(1)gauge field. Primordial anisotropies are generated either actively during inflation or from inhomogeneities modulating the surface of end of inflation during waterfall transition. We present a consistent δN mechanism to calculate the anisotropic power spectrum and bispectrum. We show that the primordial anisotropies generated at the surface of end of inflation do not depend on the number of e-folds and therefore do not produce dangerously large anisotropies associated with the IR modes. Furthermore, one can find the parameter space that the anisotropies generated from the surface of end of inflation cancel the anisotropies generated during inflation, therefore relaxing the constrains on model parameters imposed from IR anisotropies. We also show that the gauge field fluctuations induce a red-tilted power spectrum so the averaged power spectrum from the gauge field can change the total power spectrum from blue to red. Therefore, hybrid inflation, once gauged under a U(1) field, can be consistent with the cosmological observations.

We study primordial anisotropies generated in the model of gauged hybrid inflation in which the complex waterfall field is charged under a U(1)gauge field. Primordial anisotropies are generated either actively during inflation or from inhomogeneities modulating the surface of end of inflation during waterfall transition. We present a consistent δN mechanism to calculate the anisotropic power spectrum and bispectrum. We show that the primordial anisotropies generated at the surface of end of inflation do not depend on the number of e-folds and therefore do not produce dangerously large anisotropies associated with the IR modes. Furthermore, one can find the parameter space that the anisotropies generated from the surface of end of inflation cancel the anisotropies generated during inflation, therefore relaxing the constrains on model parameters imposed from IR anisotropies. We also show that the gauge field fluctuations induce a red-tilted power spectrum so the averaged power spectrum from the gauge field can change the total power spectrum from blue to red. Therefore, hybrid inflation, once gauged under a U(1) field, can be consistent with the cosmological observations

The CMB Stage 4 (CMB-S4) experiment is a next-generation, ground-based experiment that will measure the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization to unprecedented accuracy, probing the signature of inflation, the nature of cosmic neutrinos, relativistic thermal relics in the early universe, and the evolution of the universe. CMB-S4 will consist of O(500,000) photon-noise-limited detectors that cover a wide range of angular scales in order to probe the cosmological signatures from both the early and late universe. It will measure a wide range of microwave frequencies to cleanly separate the CMB signals from galactic and extra-galactic foregrounds. To advance the progress towards designing the instrument for CMB-S4, we have established a framework to optimize the instrumental configuration to maximize its scientific output. The framework combines cost and instrumental models with a cosmology forecasting tool, and evaluates the scientific sensitivity as a function of various instrumental parameters. The cost model also allows us to perform the analysis under a fixed-cost constraint, optimizing for the scientific output of the experiment given finite resources. In this paper, we report our first results from this framework, using simplified instrumental and cost models. We have primarily studied two classes of instrumental configurations: arrays of large-aperture telescopes with diameters ranging from 2–10 m, and hybrid arrays that combine small-aperture telescopes (0.5-m diameter) with large-aperture telescopes. We explore performance as a function of telescope aperture size, distribution of the detectors into different microwave frequencies, survey strategy and survey area, low-frequency noise performance, and balance between small and large aperture telescopes for hybrid configurations. Both types of configurations must cover both large (~ degree) and small (~ arcmin) angular scales, and the performance depends on assumptions for performance vs. angular scale

Weak gravitational lensing leaves a characteristic imprint on the cosmic microwave background temperature and polarization angular power spectra. Here, we investigate the possible constraints on the integrated lensing potential from future cosmic microwave background angular spectra measurements expected from Planck and EPIC. We find that Planck and EPIC will constrain the amplitude of the integrated projected potential responsible for lensing at 6% and 1% level, respectively, with very little sensitivity to the shape of the lensing potential. We discuss the implications of such a measurement in constraining dark energy and modified gravity scalar-tensor theories. We then discuss the impact of a wrong assumption on the weak lensing potential amplitude on cosmological parameter inference.

We develop a perturbative formalism for computing magnetocrystalline anisotropy within density functional theory and the magnetic force theorem. Instead of computing eigenvalues of the spin–orbit Hamiltonian for selected spin polarizations, as in the conventional “force theorem” approach, we show that the effect can be cast into a redefined form of the spin–orbit operator. This allows to separate the large eigenvalue shift due to spin-orbit interaction common for both polarizations from the much smaller magnetic anisotropy splitting. As a consequence the anisotropy splitting may by considered as a perturbation.

Anisotropic polymers with aligned macromolecule chains exhibit directional strengthening of mechanical and physical properties. However, manipulating the orientation of polymer chains in a fully cured thermoset is almost impossible due to its permanently crosslinked nature. In this paper, we demonstrate that rearrangeable networks with bond exchange reactions (BERs) can be utilized to tailor the anisotropic mechanical properties of thermosetting polymers. When a constant force is maintained at BER activated temperatures, the malleable thermoset creeps in the direction of stress, and macromolecule chains align themselves in the same direction. The aligned polymer chains result in an anisotropic network with a stiffer mechanical behavior in the direction of creep, while with a more compliant behavior in the transverse direction. The degree of network anisotropy is proportional to the amount of creep strain. A multi-length scale constitutive model is developed to study the creep-induced anisotropy of thermosetting polymers. The model connects the micro-scale BER kinetics, orientation of polymer chains, and directional mechanical properties of network polymers. Without any fitting parameters, it is able to predict the evolution of creep strain at different temperatures and anisotropic stress-strain behaviors of CANs after creep. Predictions on the chain orientation are verified by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. Based on parametric studies, it is shown that the influences of creep time and temperature on the network anisotropy can be generalized into a single parameter, and the evolution of directional modulus follows an Arrhenius type time-temperature superposition principle (TTSP). The presented work provides a facile approach to transform isotropic thermosets into anisotropic ones using simple heating, and their directional properties can be readily tailored by the processing conditions.

We present a minimally parametric, model independent reconstruction of the shape of the primordial power spectrum. Our smoothing spline technique is well-suited to search for smooth features such as deviations from scale invariance, and deviations from a power law such as running of the spectral index or small-scale power suppression. We use a comprehensive set of the state-of the art cosmological data: Planck observations of the temperature and polarisation anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background, WiggleZ and Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 galaxy power spectra and the Canada-France-Hawaii Lensing Survey correlation function. This reconstruction strongly supports the evidence for a power law primordial power spectrum with a red tilt and disfavours deviations from a power law power spectrum including small-scale power suppression such as that induced by significantly massive neutrinos. This offers a powerful confirmation of the inflationary paradigm, justifying the adoption of the inflationary prior in cosmological analyses.

We investigate a phenomenological non-gravitational coupling between dark energy and dark matter, where the interaction in the dark sector is parameterized as an energy transfer either from dark matter to dark energy or the opposite. The models are constrained by a whole host of updated cosmological data: cosmic microwave background temperatureanisotropies and polarization, high-redshift supernovae, baryon acoustic oscillations, redshift space distortions and gravitational lensing. Both models are found to be compatible with all cosmological observables, but in the case where dark matter decays into dark energy, the tension with the independent determinations of H 0 and σ 8 , already present for standard cosmology, increases: this model in fact predicts lower H 0 and higher σ 8 , mostly as a consequence of the higher amount of dark matter at early times, leading to a stronger clustering during the evolution. Instead, when dark matter is fed by dark energy, the reconstructed values of H 0 and σ 8 nicely agree with their local determinations, with a full reconciliation between high- and low-redshift observations. A non-zero coupling between dark energy and dark matter, with an energy flow from the former to the latter, appears therefore to be in better agreement with cosmological data

The singular-point detection technique, in which the second derivative of the magnetization with respect to field is examined, has been used to determine the anisotropy field Bsub(A) = (2/Msub(s)) (K 1 + 2K 2 ) for Sm 2 Co 17 , Er 2 Co 17 , and Tm 2 Co 17 over the temperature range 77 - 300 K. Exrapolation of the initial part of the hard-direction magnetization curve for aligned powders enables K 1 and K 2 to be estimated. For Er 2 Co 17 and Tm 2 Co 17 the rare-earth (R) and cobalt sublattices are oppositely aligned, so that the onset of ordering of the R sublattice leads to a decrease in saturation magnetization as the temperature is lowered. This is in sharp contrast to the rapid increase in K 1 at low temperatures. By subtracting the corresponding Msub(s) values from that of Y 2 Co 17 the temperature dependence of the R sublattice can be determined. It is found that K 1 is directly proportional to the cube of this quantity, indicating the dominance of the rare-earth sublattice in determining the anisotropic properties of these compounds. For Sm 2 Co 17 the anisotropy constant varies very strongly with the reduced magnetization. (author)

We place functional constraints on the shape of the inflaton potential from the cosmic microwave background through a variant of the generalized slow-roll approximation that allows large amplitude, rapidly changing deviations from scale-free conditions. Employing a principal component decomposition of the source function G ' ≅3(V ' /V) 2 -2V '' /V and keeping only those measured to better than 10% results in 5 ne